Lore and legend of the English church

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LORE AND LEGEND OF

THE ENGLISH CHURCH

WORKS BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A.

The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.

"This book is reverent, learned, and interesting, and will be
read with a great deal of profit by anyone who wishes to study
the history of the sign of our Redemption." — Church Times.

'' It is copiously and well illustrated, lucidly ordered and
written, and deserves to be widely known." — Yorkihire Post.

"The volume teems with facts, and it is evident that Mr.
Tyack has made his study a labour of love, and spared no
research in order, within the prescribed limits, to make his work
complete. He has given us a valuable work of reference, and
a very instructive and entertaining volume." — Birmino^ham
Daily Gazette.

"An engrossing and instructive narrative." — Dundee
Advertiser.

" As a popular account of the Cross in history, we do not
know that a better book can be named.*' — Glasgow Herald.

Historic Dress of the Clergy.

*' We do not hesitate to recommend this volume as the most
reliable and the most comprehensive illustrated guide to the
history and origin of the canonical vestments and other dress
worn by the clergy, whether ecclesiastical, academical, or
general, while the excellent work in typography and binding
make it a beautiful ^ift-book." — Church Bells.

"A very painstaking and very valuable volume on a subject
which is just now attracting much attention. Mr. Tyack has
collected a large amount of information from sources not avail-
able to the unlearned, and has put together his materials in an
attractive way. The book deserves and is sure to meet with a
wide circulation." — Daily Chronicle.

" The book can be recommended to an undoubtedly large
class of persons who are seeking information on this and kindred
subjects.** — The Times.

"The book is written with great care, and with an evident
knowledge of history. It is well worth the study of all who
wish to be better informed upon a subject which the author
states in his preface gives evident signs of a lively and growing
interest.** — Manchester Courier.

A Book About Bells.

" A most useful and interesting book. . . . All who are
interested in bells will, we feel confident, read it with pleasure
and profit.'* — Church Family Newspaper.

" A pleasing, graceful, and scholarly book. . . A handsome
volume which will be prized by the antiquary, and can be
perused with delight and advantage by the general reader." —
Notes and Queries.

*' 'A Book About Bells ' can be heartily commended." — Pall
Mall Gazette.

"•A Book .A.bout Bells' is destined to be the work of
reference on the subject, and it ought to find a home on the
shelves of every library.'* — Northern Gazette.

%ovc anb %cQcnb

of tbe

EriGlisb Church .

J5s tbeyv

•Rev. (5eo:^ »rii?acft, B.a.

LONDON :
WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., S, FARRINGDON AVENUE.

1899.

TO ONE

WHOSE UNFAILING INTEREST IN

ALL MY UNDERTAKINGS

IS TO ME NO SMALL ENCOURAGEMENT, AND

WHOSE CRITICISM AND ADVICE ARE NO LITTLE HELP,

MY WIFE,

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

422869

JiUrU^, ■

(preface.

T7NC0URAGED by the kindly reception that his
-* — ' former works have been accorded, the author of
the following pages has once more ventured to make the
attempt at presenting, in brief and popular form, some, at
least, of the salient points of a large subject. Within the
limits which he has set himself, he has aimed at making this
examination of the Lore and Legends of the English Church
as complete as possible ; with what success he must leave
it to the reader to judge. It is his pleasure, as well as a
duty, once more to acknowledge the obligation under which
he is to the excellent library of works on folk-lore and
kindred subjects which his friend and publisher, Mr. William
Andrews, of the Hull Press, has put at his service.

Geo. S. Tyack.

Penkridge,

Easter^ iSgg.

s*.

ConUniB.

PAGE

Chaffer I. Introduction.— All Religions largely con-
cerned with the Supernatural and the Mysterious, and
these the fields most largely occupied by Folk-lore — The
adoption of Pagan usages by the Church often harmless
and even expedient — Evidence of S. Paul, S. Gregory,
and the Catacombs — Folk-lore a growth, not an invention
— The familiar affection of the people for the Church in
past days — The ethical truth of legends historically untrue
— S. Dunstan — Widespread interest of the Mediaeval
Church — Limitations proposed. I

Chapter II. The Building of the Church.— Sites of
heathen temples utilized for Christian Churches— The
Empire and the temples— Circular Churchyards and their
origin — Churches near Wells — Supernatural indication of
sites— Durham Cathedral — Cartmel — Supernatural inter-
ference with building — Welsh, Cornish, and other examples
— Pagan custom of human sacrifice at laying a foundation
— Connection of this with the foregoing stories — Other
suggested explanations — Legends of carvings, etc., on
Churches — Satanic possession of Churches — Further prooi
in these of early contests between Paganism and Christianity
— Form of Early Churches — Wooden Churches — Cruciform
buildings — Circular buildings — Orientation — Methods of
raising funds — Briefs — Destniction of Churches by fire —
By encroachments of the sea — By drifts of sand — Services
in partly ruined Churches — Twin Churches — Largest and
smallest Churches — Curiously built Churches ii

Chapter III. The Church Steeple.— Use of Steeples —
The Devil's dislike to them — Steeples at Probus, Ashton-
under-Lyne, Ormskirk, and Prestwich — Acrobats on
Steeples — Curiosities preserved in Church Towers —
Church clock superstitions — Hymns on Church Towers —
Fortified Towers — Notable Towers and Spires 43

Chapter IV. The Churchyard.— The Garth, Atrium^
or **God*s Acre" — Trees in Churchyards — Yews — Rose-
trees — Churchyard grass — Ghosts — S. Mark's Eve— Hemp-
seed charm — Churchyard charms — Divination and witchcraft
— North side of the Churchyard — Funeral and Bridal
processions — Wakes — Secular use of Churchyards — Clipping
the Church — Church Ales — The Parish Stocks — Preaching
Crosses — Doles distributed in Churchyards — A Dorset
custom— S. Germoe's Chair — The Sun-dial. $2

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chapter V. Graves and Funerals.— Burials in Church-
yards and in Churches — S. Swithin — The Orientation of
graves — First interment in a new grave-yard — Animals
and things buried with the dead — Funeral superstitions —
Flowers at funerals — Use of coffins — Funeral garlands —
Flowers on graves — All Souls' Day, Whit Sunday, and
Flowering Sunday — The herse— Burial in Woollen —
Attendance at funerals — Bearers — Torches — The Burial
Service — A charm — Exhumation — Curious grave-stones —
Epitaphs — "Edwin and Emma." ... ... ... ... 78

Chapter VI. The Nave.— The "Ship of the Church"—
Rushes for a floor-cov6ring — Rush-bearing — Seats — High
pews — Bench-ends — A Cornish legend — Family pews —
Hall-dog pews - Galleries — Separation of the Congregation
according to the sexes — Wearing hats in Church — Dog-
whippers — State attendance of Mayors and others — Secular
uses of the Nave — Feasts— Paul's Walk — Standard land
measures marked in Church - Curious incident at Wells —
Public penances — Charms and spells — Sunday weather —
Pictures and statues in Churches— The Royal Arms —
Floral decorations— Quaint Christmas custom at Ripon —
Trees in Churches. ... ... loi

Chapter VII. The Pulpit and the Lectern. — Origin
of Pulpits and Lecterns — Movable Pulpits — Old Pulpits,
their Sounding Boards, and Hour Glasses — " Three-
deckers" — Laws for the provision of Pulpits in Churches
— Laws ancient and modern as to Sermons — Homilies —
Mediaeval preaching — Latimer's Sermons — Curious methods
of Preachers — Endowed Sermons — Bampton Lectures,
Boyle Lectures, the Lion Sermon, the Fairchild Sermon
— A Corpus Christi Sermon — Wedding Sermons — Funeral
Sermons — Lecterns— Eagle Lecterns — The Bristol Eagle —
The Pelican — The Caistor Gad-whip — The Litany-desk. 134

Chapter VIII. The Font.— Early Baptisteries and Fonts
— Baptismal Churches — The material of Fonts — Their
shape — Their decoration — Their inscriptions — Their covers
and canopies — Their position — Basins used for Fonts —
Hallowing the Font— Baptismal seasons — The Baptismal
waters — Water from the Jordan and from Holy Wells —
Superstition concerning a first Baptism — Decorating a
Church for a Baptism — The Bearing-cloth — The Chrisom
— Chrisom-children — Christening caps — Sponsors — Their
qualifications and numbers — Superstitions concerning God-
parents — The age for Baptism — Precedence of the sexes —
Immersion, Aspersion, and "Sprinkling" — Crying at
Christening — "The Devil's Door" — Superstitions con-
cerning the child's name — Choice of names — Unction of
the Baptized — The Sacrament to be free — Confirmation —

CONTENTS. XI

PACK

The Bishop's left hand — The age for Confirmation — Spon-
sors at Confirmation— Unction at Confirmation — The linen
fillets — Volowing and Btshopping. ... ... ... ... 154

Chapter IX. Folk-lore and Customs of Marriage. —
Banns — The words Banns, Spurrings, and Sibrit —
"Falling over the Pulpit"— Superstitions concerning
banns — ** Mocking the Church" — Lawful and unlawful
seasons for marriage — Lucky and unlucky days — Sunday
Weddings — The bride's dress — Her hair — Her veil —
Marriage in a sheet — Bridesmaids — The bride's mother
— The ** best man" — Flowers and rushes at Weddings
— Marriage at the Church door — The Wedding-ring —
Posies on rings — The ring-finger — Rush-rings — Puritan
objections to the Wedding-ring — Superstitions about the
ring — "Spousal offerings" — "I thee Worship" — The
nuptial kiss — Curious Wedding customs — Wedding music. 178

Chapter X. The Chancel and the Choir. — Primitive
names for the Chancel — The Screen and Veils — Exclusion
of the Laity— The Royal Prebend at S. David's — Primitive
Chancels — Stalls — Misericordes — Decorations and lights —
The Paschal candle — Candlemas — Flowers for S. Barnabas'
Day— Ascension Day in Lichfield — Ball-playing by the
Choristers — " Whip-dog Day " — Boy- Bishops — Antiphonal
singing — Impressing Choristers — The Reformers on music
—Carols — The Manx OieU Vetrey — Hymns and Metrical
Psalms— Parish Clerks— The Parish Orchestra — The Organ
— The Altar — Charms connected with il— A modern omen
— '* Bible Orchard," S. Ives— Bowing towards the Altar
— Altar-rails 203

Chapter XI. Alms and Offerings.— Alms jn the Primi-
tive Church — Lammas Day — Meaning of the word —
Animal offerings in England — Banners and spoils of war
— "Offering enemies" — Royal Epiphany and Maundy
gifts — Alms in the Prayer-book — Offertory, meaning of
the term — the Basin, Dish, Box, or Bag for the Alms —
Charms with Church money — The "Sacrament Shilling" —
Curious application of Church Alms — Patents and Briefs —
Doles — Mortuaries — Gifts to Shrines — Thefts from Shrines
— Relics still preserved in England. 230

Chapter XII. Conclusion. — Changed regard for Folk-lore
in recent times — The myth-making tendency of Human
Nature — Underlying meanings. 252

%ove anb Xegenb of tbe
lEnQltsb (Tburcb.

CHAPTER I.

3ntrobuction.

IN the nature of things it needs must be that a multitude
of customs, often quaint and curious, is found in
connection with every society of great antiquity. The mere
fact of such long-continued existence implies that the roots
of the organization in question are laid in an age when men
were simple-minded and credulous, when critical skill was
little known, and when to unscientific eyes the common
things of every day were so full of inexplicable wonders that
the supernatural seemed ever very close to the natural.

But beyond all other societies it is to be expected that a
wealth of folk-lore and legend should grow up around that
divinely constituted society, the Church ; and this for several
reasons. The message of the Church is largely concerned
with those subjects which are specially fruitful in fanciful
speculations, with the affairs of that mysterious realm which
lies near enough to us to attract our interest, and yet too far
from us to allow of our investigation. The mysteries of life
and death, the vast, unfathomable oceans of the Heretofore

1

2 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

and the Hereafter which meet about the narrow shores of
Time Present, the influences which draw or drive us in our
earthly course, and the connection between the character of
the unknown future and the known, or partly known, present
— these were neither new problems when the Church came as
an authoritative teacher, nor had the sages and philosophers
of old had any monopoly of speculation concerning them.
It was not one of the priesthood, but a noble of the rude
court of Edwin, King of Northumbria, that urged the common
interest in these questions as a reason for listening to the
words of S. Paulinus. " The present life of man on earth
seems to me," so the Venerable Bede records him as saying,
" in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, like
the swift flight of a sparrow through the hall, as it enters by
one door, and immediately flies out at another, what time
you are sitting at supper, O King, with your chieftains and
attendants about you, on a winter's night, while within a fire
blazes on the hearth and the room glows with the warmth,
and without storms of wintry rain and snow are everywhere
raging : for the time that the bird is indoors it is unassailed
by the tempest, but in the briefest of intervals, as it came
from the winter's darkness, it is lost to our sight and returns
to the winter's darkness again : so the life of man appears
for a space, but of what follows, or of what went before, we
know nothing."

Similarly had many a thoughtful man reasoned with him-
self; the problems of life and death, no less than the
experience of them, occur in some sort to every man ; and
consequently every religion strives to peer into the surround-
ing mists, to learn somewhat for the guidance of its disciples
here, and to encourage a hope for the hereafter.

INTRODUCTION. 3

Christianity came then with a new message on a subject
as old as the world, and one on which countless speculations
were rife in the minds of men. And it was but to be
expected that even believers in the new and clearer teaching
should not be able, nor entirely willing, to shake off
altogether the fancies in which they had before comforted
themselves. Hence we find in all times and places tales
of ghosts and apparitions, of witchcraft and Satanic agency,
of fairies and goblins, — which are all evidences of the efforts
of the human mind to realize something of the invisible
world around him ; and hence, too, the theories concerning
days, things, and actions which are lucky or unlucky,
concerning charms and amulets, talismans and signs, —
which are crude attempts to explain some of the mysteries
of Providence. The spread of education is rapidly relegating
many of these things to the limbo of extinct superstitions,
but to several of them we may apply the dictum of Dr.
Johnson on the subject of ghosts ; " it is wonderful that five
thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of
the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has
ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing
after death ; all argument is against it, but all belief is
for it." So scientific culture has shown itself as powerless
as religious teaching to seriously affect the native credulity
of men in some respects.

But not every habit or custom in use before the
foundation of the Church, even if it formed part of an
idolatrous worship, was in itself superstitious. "The
heathen in his blindness" might offer to the idol, which
to him symbolized the debased and unworthy conception
which he had formed of Deity, many an act of devotion

4 LORE AND LEGEND OP THE BNGUSH CHURCH.

which might laudably be rendered to the true God ; and
thus many usages of heathen times were adopted by the
Church and endowed with a Christian meaning. The
Apostle S. Paul illustrates the spirit in which this was done,
when with ready wit he obtains for himself a hearing from
the sceptics and gossips of the Areopagus, by claiming for
the Faith the altar to "the Unknown God." A more
distinct example of this method of treating heathenism
meets us in a letter from Pope Gregory the Great to
the Abbot Mileto, written in 60 1. "The idol temples are
not to be destroyed," says the pontiff, " but let the idols in
them be destroyed ; let holy water be blessed and sprinkled
in these temples, let altars be built and relics placed there ;
and since they are accustomed to slay many oxen in
sacrifice to demons, let them on the anniversary of the
dedication, or on the birthdays of the holy martyrs,
construct booths around those churches which were formerly
temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious festivity."
It has also been well observed that in the primitive Church,
a great many of the converts to which were slaves, it must
often have been a matter almost of necessity to utilize
heathen festivals for Christian purposes ; the freedom from
the usual round of labours affording the little flock an
opportunity too valuable to be neglected. Similarly the
earliest Christian art was largely an adaptation of such
heathen symbols as might be converted readily to the
teaching of the truth. The trailing vine painted along the
wall, or the simple figure of a shepherd bearing a Iambi
spoke to the worshipper in the Catacombs of the declarations
of the Saviour, " I am the true Vine," " I am the Good
Shepherd;" yet to the heathen they were also familiar as

INTRODUCTION. 5

suggestive of far different ideas. Thus does the
Commendatore de Rossi speak of this subject, in his
Roma Sotterranea ; "I have constantly observed in the
subterranean cemeteries, that the early Christians possessed
sculptured sarcophagi which bear no sign of Christian faith,
and seem to have issued from Gentile workshops ; adorned
with images of the firmament, scenes of shepherd life,
agriculture, the chase, games, etc. The Christian inter-
pretation given to agricultural or pastoral scenes, to
personifications of the seasons, to dolphins and other
marine creatures, is obvious and universally acknowledged.
When the faithful could not obtain sarcophagi adorned with
sacred sculpture, it is evident that they took great trouble in
selecting those which contained nothing directly offensive to
the faith, and did not represent idolatrous rites, images of false
gods, or subjects too evidently belonging to Pagan theogony."
What it was thus found necessary, or at least advisable,
to do in matters of public festivals and in the use of art,
would be still more naturally done in those countless
smaller usages, which, connected only very indirectly with
a specific form of faith or religion, had become part of man's
mental habit towards those mysterious questions of which
we have above spoken. And how tenaciously some details
of the old faiths were clung to, by those who had neverthe-
less embraced the new, is exhibited in a striking manner in
several passages in the Acts of the Apostles^ and in the
Epistles of S. Paul; where we find that even the leaders
and rulers of the infant Church were still in several cases
strenuous in upholding the whole of the details of the
Mosaic economy. What we find there, doubtless took place
all the world over in different forms and various degrees.

6 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

It would be an error, however, to suppose that all the
folk-lore of the Church, all the " superstitions," if you will,
that the people have brought into it, or cultivated around it,
are of heathen derivation. Every age produces its manners
and customs, obvious enough in meaning and practical in
purpose to itself, but quaint and curious survivals, or half-
forgotten fragments of antiquity, to its successors. Even we
in these closing years of the nineteenth century, when the
tendency seems to be to eliminate the play of fancy, and to
curb originality or idiosyncracy, so as to bring all to one
monotonous level of life and action, — even we shall pro-
bably be found by a future age to have evolved habits of
thought and conduct, which will then appear as grotesque
as those of past days not seldom do to us. Would that we
might hope that our legacy of folk-lore will prove as full of
lessons of tenderness and truth as in many cases our heritage
has been. For it should not be forgotten that the chief
interest of folk-lore is in the fact that it is a genuine growth
from the convictions of the people ; the quaint custom, the
weird legend, the venerable superstition, are not valuable
only from an antiquarian point of view, but as necessary
data for a true history of man, setting forth, as they do, his
inmost faith, in those points to which he has clung most
tenaciously.

The existence of the Deity, and under Him of super-
natural [)Owers both good and evil ; the immortality of the
soul ; the value of propitiatory sacrifice, — these are some
of the elementary articles in the creed of men, to which the
folk lore of almost all ages and races bears witness. The
folk-lore of the English Church shows us also, by customs
that at first ap|>ear antagonistic in their sharp contrasts, the

INTRODUCTION. 7

familiar affection, yet the profound veneration, which were
felt for the Church herself and for all things consecrated
to her service. Her sacramental system and apostolic
ministry, her sacred vessels and solemn seasons, the con-
secrated enclosure around her fanes, the very stones from
their walls, and sods of their garths, all were regarded as
specially blessed : yet withal the villagers held their wakes
within the churchyards, and chatted and chaffered even
within the naves of the churches, saw mountebanks climb
their steeples, and watched the performance of miracle plays
in consecrated buildings; without seeing anything incon-
gruous in their conduct.

Each fact in the almost boundless folk-lore of the country,
however trivial or childish it may in itself appear, is the
outward expression of a deep feeling once common among
the people. Even those legends of bygone days, which it is
the fashion to discuss as tissues of romantic superstition,
have their meaning and their foundation. No one de-
liberately invented the legends of the people, any more than
anyone artificially created their customs ; such an attempt
would have been utterly futile, for the creations would in
either case have been entirely devoid of vitality. Ruskin in
one of his minor works emphasizes the fact that there is a
poetical truth as well as an historical truth, and that many a
legend which is not history may be the vivid expression of
an ethical fact. But we may go further, and aver that in
almost all, if not in all, cases, the legends, like the customs,
have arisen from the solid foundation of an historical fact.
To take what may seem an extreme instance; of all the
ecclesiastical legends of our land, which one has been more
often treated as a merely ludicrous and absurd myth than

8 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

that of the contest of S. Dunstan, the archbishop, with the
arch-fiend ? And yet there is surely a most natural method
of eiq>laining how such a strange story arose. The great
archbishop, as is well known, was a master in the mechanical
arts, and loved the fierce flame of his forge: what then
more natural than for him to assert, or for it to be asserted
of him, that when he was assailed by temptation, and
especially sensual temptation, he fought the devil with his
hammer and his tongs : meaning thereby that at such times,
with practical good sense, he flung all his energies into the
hard manual labour of his forge, and so drove off the attack
of the evil one? And what, again, more likely than that such
a statement should grow in the imagination of a simple age
into the story of the devil, in the form of a beautiful woman,
tempting the saint and being repelled by his glowing tongs ?
In some such manner, doubtless, have most of our legends
and folk-lore tales been built up, enshrining a truth some-
times poetically, sometimes (as here) more quaintly, yet
having ever that truth within them, which has been the life-
giving and sustaining force to them during the ages.

Another point which helps to account for the multiplicity
and variety of our Church folk-lore is the fact that in past
days the offices of the Church entered so fully into the lives
of the people. That religion has not its share now in the
every-day life of many, and especially in all the important
events and crises of their career, it would be wrong to
assume : but it certainly is true that no public evidence of
the fact is given now to the extent that it was of old. Then
the annual wake or fair began with the observance of the
dedication festival of the parish church ; each trade, organized
into a company or fraternity, began its yearly feast by atten-

INTRODUCTION. 9

dance at mass, and in many cases maintained its own altar
in the church, and paid its own chaplain ; and one of the
most joyous days in the year was the one on which, with
song and merriment, the whole parish helped to gather rushes
to strew the church floor, and brought them home. In days,
too, when there was little of movement from place to place,
and most men died within sight of the spot where they had
been bom ; when moreover no one yet had separated himself
from the Mother Church of the land, the parish church and
all that pertained to it were necessarily more to the people
generally than they are now. At its font everyone had been
baptized, before its altar every man and wife haS plighted
their troth, around its grey walls all the forefathers of the
living generation slept their long sleep, and thither all felt
they would themselves be borne when their time came.
Amidst all " the changes and chances of this mortal life,"
the birth and death of men, the growth and fall of the green
woodlands, the times of peace and the passage across the
acres of grim war, the one thing that stood unchanged in the
memory of all, from the cradle to the grave, was the great
grey church ; the one voice that was never hushed in death,
the constant tolling and pealing of her sonorous bells. What
wonder then that affection and imagination joined with faith
and history to weave a many-coloured web of mingled fact
and fancy around those time-worn walls ?

In a field so wide as the folk-lore of the English Church,
it becomes necessary to make a selection of subjects, if one's
treatment of it is neither to be inconveniently bulky, nor
disappointingly general For all that affects the life and
death of man, and all that deals with supernatural powers
and the unseen world, might reasonably be included within

lO LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

its scope. In the following pages, therefore, an endeavour
will be made to keep rigidly within the limits of a narrow
interpretation of our title. Only such folk-lore and legends
as concern the fabric of the Church, its precincts, and its
services will be reviewed. The funeral train has no interest
for us until it arrives at the lych-gate, the wedding party
leaves our sight when it leaves the churchyard ; but all that
happens within the limits of those walls, so far as it has given
rise to customs quaint or curious, or to charms and super-
stitions that are noteworthy, all this we will consider the
legitimate subject of our present discussion.

CHAPTER II.

ZJH (§nmn$ of f^ C^urc^.

FOR how many ages the sites occupied by some of our
churches have been esteemed by the people as holy
ground, it would be hard to conjecture. The parish priest
who is able to say that his parish possessed a church when
Domesday Book was compiled, feels a certain natural pride
in the guardianship of so ancient a foundation ; yet it is
unquestionable that in many instances the spot was regarded
with veneration for ages before that date, in fact long before
S. Joseph of Arimathea could have set foot, according to
tradition, in the island, and reared his little sanctuary of
interwoven branches at Glastonbury.

Not a few of our oldest churches occupy the sites of
heathen temples. In the first days of the triumph of
Christianity over Paganism in Europe, the natural tendency
was to destroy, not only the idols, but the buildings also,
which their presence and their often impure rites had polluted.
Thus under Constantine and Valentinian many temples were
totally demolished. In the time of Theodosius, however,
another and more sober plan was adopted; and the
idolatrous shrines, purified from falsehood and dedicated to
the truth, became Christian churches; and an edict of
Honorius (408 a.d.) definitely forbade the destruction of
any more temples, at least in the cities, on the ground that
they could be turned to public use when their Pagan

12 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

decorations had been removed. A writer of the middle of
the fifth century, Prosper the Aquitanian, asserts that this
emperor gave over the temples and their precincts to the
Church. Instructions for the adaptation of such places to
Christian purposes were quoted in the last chapter, as given
by S. Gregory the Great in the beginning of the seventh
century ; and there can be little question that the practice
then recommended was adopted so far as opportunity
served. S. Paul's Cathedral is alleged to cover and
consecrate ground once occupied by a temple dedicated to
Diana, and it is highly probable that a similar conversion
has taken place in many of the towns which were at one
time Roman settlements. But there are facts which are
supposed to take us back to faiths extant in Britain even
before Caesar and his legions invaded its shores.

There are, for instance, in Wales a number of churches
dating for the most part from the Norman period of
architecture, which stand in churchyards circular or oval in
sha{>e. Such are the churches of Llanfechain and Kerry, in
Montgomeryshire, of Llanarmon and Cilcenin, in Carnarvon-
shire, Tremeirchion in Flintshire, and in Denbighshire,
Derwen, Efenechtyd, Cerrig-y-druidion, Bettws-Gwerfil-
Grx:h, JJan-Elidan, and Llandyrnog. The remarkable fact
concerning these churchyards is not merely that their form
is singular, but that they are usually environed by a road,
for which there is no obvious public requirement. It is,
moreover, well known that the Celtic inhabitants of this
island affected a circular form for their sacred enclosures, a
fact that is illustrated by circles of ponderous stones in many
places. The best known instance of these is at Stonehenge,
and the memory of them is still kept alive by some of the

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 1 3

Druidic ceremonies with which a modern Eisteddfod is
inaugurated. The common situation of these temples of the
Celtic Pagans, consisting of "stone pillars in one or two
circular rows," was "the centife of some thick grove or
wood, watered by a consecrated river or fountain, and
surrounded by a ditch or mound, to prevent the intrusion of
improper persons."*

Putting these items of evidence together, we must admit
that it is at least a reasonable theory which sees in these
circular churchyards, girded by a public way, wherein
Christian ntes have now been celebrated for many hundreds
of years, an indication of holy grounds of untold antiquity,
within which it may be that for thousands of years the
Pagan worship flourished. In this case we must suppose
that the Church, having won to her side the majority of the
people, set up her altar within the enclosure which, in their
minds, had already long enjoyed a sacred character ; and
the road, which now so aimlessly surrounds the churchyard,
marks the ancient rampart which separated it from common
ground, or (as at Efenechtyd) the ancient bed of the stream
which served the same purpose, t

Another mark, or probable mark, of the annexation of the
holy places of heathenism by the Church is the neighbourhood
of a well or spring. The reverence felt of old for such
natural objects is well known. Milton's intimate knowledge
of classical usages transfers to the Severn a custom common
enough in Italy, in the familiar lines of his " Comus " : —

* " The Religion of Ancient Britain," by Geo. Smith, ll.d., f.a.s.
(Longmans, 1846.), p. 40.

t See an article on this subject by the Rev. E. Owen, M.A., F.s.A.,
in * * Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church. *' (Andrews & Co. , 1 897. )

14 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

'*The shepherds* at their festivals
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.'*

But, indeed, the worship of clear, cool water, whether in
still pool or in rippling stream, was not peculiar to any
in3rthology, and was practised in all parts of the world.
Italy had her feasts of fontinaiia, and Derbyshire and
Staffordshire delighted in their well-dressing, ages before the
custom became allied to Christian festivals. The naiads,
nymphs of river, lake, and fountain, were endowed by their
votaries with oracular and prophetic powers; and were
propitiated with offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and the
sacrifice of lambs. Borlase, in his " Natural History of
Cornwall," speaking of the miraculous efficacy ascribed to
some waters, says, "The Castalian fountain, and many
others among the Grecians, were supposed to be of a
prophetic nature ; by dipping a fair mirror into a well the
Patrseans of Greece received, as they supposed, some notice
of ensuing sickness or health, from the various forms
portrayed upon the surface ; in Laconia they cast into a
pool sacred to Juno cakes of bread-corn ; if they sunk, good
was portended, if they swam, something dreadful was to
ensue." The same authority says, that " The Druids (as we
have reason to think) pretended to predict future events
from holy wells and running streams." We have already
seen, in a quotation given above, that these latter chose for
the erection of their sacred circles spots watered by streams
and fountains; and there are wells in the country whose
names still testify to the regard in which our Saxon fore-
fathers held them ; for we still possess, besides the many

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 15

wells dedicated to Christian saints, a Woden's well and a
Thor's well. There are in England some hundreds of wells
that are reputed to this day to be " holy," the county of
York alone containing nearly seventy ; and we may safely
conclude not only that all these obtained their sacred
character at a very remote period, but that they are the
survivals of a belief at one time more widely spread.

Recollecting these facts, therefore, it is interesting to find
several of our most ancient churches standing in close
proximity to wells. At East Dereham there is a well in the
churchyard, at the west end of the church ; at Bisley, in
Gloucestershire, is the ruin of a churchyard cross which
covers a well, now dry. About two hundred yards from the
church of S. Tecla, Virgin and Martyr, at Llandegla in
Wales, is a spring now named after the saint ; at Jesmond,
near Newcastle-on-Tyne, a well and a chapel formerly stood
in close connection ; at Lichfield are similarly found the
church and well of S. Chad ; in Somersetshire, the church
of S. Decuman at Watchet claims to have stood hard by the
holy well since the year 400 ; in Shropshire, we have the
parish church of Stoke S. Milborough (Milburga) close to a
well of the same dedication ; S. Cuthbert's well is near
Donington Church, and the monastic houses of Wenlock
Priory and of the friary at Ludlow both include wells of
reputed sanctity within their walls.

Scotland supplies examples in the well and the ruined
chapel of S. Laurence, at Little Dunkeld, Perthshire, another
at Musselburgh, and that of S. Fillan, at StrathfiUan.

From all these instances it seems almost impossible to
escape the conclusion that the early Christian teachers,
taking advantage of the sacredness which they found already

l6 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

ascribed to wells and springs, in many cases erected their
first rude churches by the side of them. It is true that
water was, and is, required in the services of the Church ; its
proximity would be convenient for the administration of
Holy Baptism, and in the primitive ages it was usual for the
worshippers to wash their hands, ere entering the church, at a
fountain or basin provided in the outer courts. Eusebius,
Paulinus of Nola, and Socrates the historian, all speak of
the provision of such a means of lustration ; and S. Chry-
sostom and TertuUian refer to its use. But even if this
practice were known in Britain, it does not destroy, but
rather confirms, our contention. The presence of water, so
readily to hand for these purposes, would be an added reason
for occupjdng the site which Paganism, on account of that
presence, had held to be holy.

The sites of some churches have been, according to legend,
miraculously assigned to them. Everyone who is familiar
with the north country knows the story of the foundation of
Durham's glorious cathedral. In the days when Norse
pirates were harrying our eastern coasts, the monks of Lindis-
fame were compelled to seek refuge on the main land, and,
exhuming the relics of S. Cuthbert as their most precious
treasure, they carried them with them. For some years they
found no permanent resting-place, but wandered over
Northumbria, halting now here, now there. For some time
Chester-le-Street gave them shelter ; but the storm that had
driven them inland was now felt far beyond the coasts, and
they fled again, this time to Ripon. At last they essayed to
make their way back once more to Chester-le-Street with the
hope of being allowed to settle there, and they had journeyed
as far as " a place called Ward Law," east of the site of Dur-

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 1 7

ham, when they were checked, by a new and strange difficulty:
the bier of S. Cuthbert stuck fast, and not all their combined
skill and force availed to stir it. Perceiving that this was
the result of no ordinary cause, the little company fasted
and prayed for the space of three days, that the divine
purpose might be revealed to them ; and their devotion was
rewarded by the revelation that they were to carry their
holy burden to Dunholme. But this caused only further
perplexity, for no one knew where Dunholme lay, or in what
direction to seek for it. While they were thus wondering
what was to be done, they heard a woman in the distance
crying to a neighbour that she had lost her cow, and asking
whether she had b); chance seen it ; the answer was that the
cow had strayed to Dunholme, and that there it would
be found. Full of gratitude for the sign, the monks
endeavour to follow the woman, and at once the bier moves
on without further difficulty ; and their unconscious guide
leads them to that spot amid the windings of the Wear,
which the towers of Durham and the holy shrine of S.
Cuthbert have since made famous. Such is the story told in
the " Rites of Durham," and for ages it has been commemo-
rated on the external face of the north-west pinnacle of the
Nine Altars Chapel of the cathedral by the carving of
a woman and a cow.

Supernatural intimation was given also of the site for
Cartmel Church in Lancashire. A company of monks had
journeyed into the country, and had selected a certain hill
within Cartmel Forest as a suitable spot for a settlement.
They had already marked out the ground which their
church was to occupy, when a Voice, speaking to them out
of illimitable space, said " Not here, but in a valley between

2

1 8 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

two rivers, whereof the one runs north and the other south ! "
Much the brethren marvelled where such a spot could be ;
but obedient to the command, they left their chosen place
and set forth to seek the one appointed. After much
fruitless search they came upon a wooded valley, in the
midst of which was a morass, from which a sluggish stream
flowed northward ; wading through this they found that the
marsh was bounded on the further side by a similar stream
which wended its way to the south ; while midway between
them was a small eminence forming an island among the
silent, sullen waters. Here, therefore, they reared their
church, and dedicated it in the name of S. Mary ; while
on that hill top where the wondrous Voice had spoken to
them they raised a small chapel in honour of S. Bernard,
whence the spot is still called Bernard's Mount.

We of to-day, whose chief difficulty in erecting a church
is raising the funds to pay for it, have no idea of the
manifold difficulties with which our forefathers had to
contend, even in the preliminary stages of their work.
Spirits, sometimes good, sometimes evil, put forth their
powers to interfere with the building, the site selected being
frequently objected to for some reason by these invisible
agents. Stories illustrating this are found scattered through-
out all parts of Great Britain ; sometimes in a form not
unlike that which has just been quoted concerning Cartmel.
In these, one site having been chosen, an intimation is
conveyed to the workers, by a voice or in some other
mysterious way, that another will prove more suitable, or
more acceptable to God. Other legends are of a much
wilder kind, and tell of the forcible removal of partly-built
churches by fairies, devils, witches, or by unseen hands,

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 1 9

or by spirits in the forms of various animals. There is

a great similarity between many of these tales, so that a few

examples will be amply sufficient.

Of legends of the first of these two classes the following

are specimens. Masons were at one time employed on a

church which was to be built where the Cynwyd Bridge

crosses the River Dee, but a warning was conveyed to them

that the proper site for it was one at which a white stag

would be started while they were hunting. In due course

the omen was fulfilled; and there a church was erected,

and was known as Llan-garw-gwyn, or " the Church of the

white stag," a name since abbreviated into Llangar.

Another Welsh legend tells how a voice cried continually to

the builders of a church at a place now called Glanfread-

fawr,

** Llanfihangel Geneu'r Glyn,
Glanfread-fawr gaiff fod £a,n hyn."

that is

" Llanfihangel Geneu'r Glyn,
Glanfread-fawr shall stand herein."

This was taken as an intimation that the church (Llanfi-
hangel) should be built at Geneu'r Glyn, a farm occupying
the spot originally selected. At Wrexham, too, we are told
that the site at first chosen for the church was Bryn-y-
Hynnon, but that a spirit-voice disturbed the builders by
ever crying over them " Bryn-y-Grog ! " (Hill of the Cross),
until they transferred their labours thither, and built where
now Wrexham Church stands. Cornwall has a similar
legend of Talland Church. A place called Pulpit, nearer
the centre of the parish, had been selected for building
upon, but here, too, a mysterious cry was heard night after
night.

30 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

** If you will my wish fulfil,
Build the church on Talland Hill."

And at length in obedience to this direction the place
indicated, which lies near the sea, was adopted. In these
last instances, the warning of the voice was supplemented
and emphasised by the nightly destruction by unseen hands
of each day's work.

At Hanchurch and at Walsall, in Staffordshire, the
original site interfered in some way with the doings of the
fairies; and consequently these little folk persistently
removed the materials, until finally the merely human
builders were forced to yield to their will. The fairies, too,
are credited by some (though others say, spirits) with
carrying off the stones of Llanllechia Church, near Bangor,
from a field named Cae'r Capel. The more malevolent
influence of witches is alleged to have been employed for
the same purpose at Wendover, Buckinghamshire ; though
here also some versions of the story speak again of fairies.

At Breedon, Leicestershire, the church stands upon a hill,
which overlooks the village, the ascent to it being so steep
that the footpath is in some places cut into steps, while the
carriage road is compelled to take a most circuitous course.
The explanation of the use of this most inconvenient
position, is that doves carried hither by night all that the
workmen could construct by day on a sf)Ot situated in the
midst of the village. The agent of the removal at Leyland,
Lancashire, is alleged to have been a cat ; at Llanfair
Dyffryn Clwyd, " a phantom in the shape of a sow's head ;"
and at Winwick a pig. In this last instance we must
acquit the animal from the charge of being merely a satanic
manifestation, as in some other cases is suggested, since it

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 21

was to do honour to S. Oswald, the martyr king of
Northumbria, that it persisted in conveying the stones to
the exact site of the martjn'dom. Several Cornish churches
were moved from one spot to another during their erection
by the Devil himself, who was helped in the work at
Altamon, in that county, by a hare and a deer. The
materials for the chapel of S. Chad, Rochdale, were
conveyed by unseen hands from the chosen site to a
neighbouring hill top ; Capel Garmon Church, which was to
have been reared upon a hill and near an ancient spring,
was removed in a similar fashion to a lower position ; and
Corwen Church was pulled down repeatedly, until the
builders submitted to its erection beside the " Pointed stone
in the icy nook" (Carreg y Big yn y fach rewlyd). The
Devil carried the stones with which Worfield Church, in
Shropshire, was building on a hill, down to a lower site ;
and in the same county we meet with stories of how two
milk-white oxen, by the nightly destruction of the work,
compelled the masons to place Broughton Church in the
valley, of how Baschurch Church would have been upon
Berth Hill but for similar uncanny interference, and how
the position of the old church of Stoke-upon-Tem was
determined in a like manner.

Stories of the same kind are told of the churches of
Plympton S. Mary, of Brent Tor, and of Braunton, in
Devonshire, of Waldron, Udimore, and Alfriston, in Sussex,
and of many other places. The site which was finally
occupied in the last-named instance was indicated by four
oxen asleep in a meadow, and so lying that their bodies
formed a cross.

Two legends of a far more fearsome kind reach us from

22 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Ireland and Scotland respectively. The first tells how S.
Patrick was endeavouring to erect a church on a great rock
at Cashel, but that every night a bull of terrible size, from
whose nostrils fire flashed, charged at his walls and entirely
demolished them; and the opposition was only ended by
Usheen, the disciple of the saint, dropping on to the back
of the bull from a tree under which it rushed, and tearing
it into two by its horns ! In proof of which story the figure
of Usheen astride the bull was, so it is said, carved within
the church.

Yet more ghastly is the Scottish tale, which recounts how
S. Columba received supernatural information that his walls
at lona could not be prevented from falling as fast as they
were built, except by burying a human victim in their
foundation ; and how Oran, the saint's companion, offered
himself, or was chosen by lot, for the purpose. The legend
cannot be accepted as historical.

There is abundant evidence that it was a superstition in
Pagan England that stability could only be assured in a new
building by offering a sacrifice at its foundation ; and the
idea seems to be one of those which are common to man in
a state of barbarism. In modern times, instances have been
quoted from Africa, Borneo, and New Zealand, where
human or animal sacrifice has taken place on such an
occasion, or where at least the tradition of it survives as a
usage but recently in vogue. It has, therefore, been argued
with plausibility that in most of these stories, especially
those in which the agency of animals occurs, we have a
vague reminiscence of a similar belief; human sacrifice
having been the service demanded in the most savage times,
and animal-life being the substituted ofiering of later days.

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 2$

which were yet not fully emancipated from their Pagan
practices.*

Other theories, however, have been propounded to
account for some of these curious stories, which occur with
such remarkable frequency not only in all parts of Great
Britain, but also in other lands. It will have been noted
that in several instances one of the two sites between which
the contest is waged is a hill top, as for example at Breedon,
Rochdale, Capel Garmon, and in all the Shropshire
instances. Bearing in mind the sacred rites which fire-
worshipping inhabitants of these islands performed upon
such spots, it has been conjectured that in these curious
legends we have a record of a similar process to that already
alluded to, in the occupation of the holy places of Paganism
by the Church ; these traditions having for their historical
foundation the struggles that took place between the
adherents of the new faith and those of the old, ere, in
some cases at least, that occupation could be made good.

A far more prosaic explanation seems obvious in some
instances. When we are told, for example, that the owner
of the site on which the church is built was unwilling to
sell it, until convinced of his duty by the story of the
miraculous indication concerning it, it is not difficult to
understand how the story arose. In other cases the
opposition of a landowner, or the dislike of the people, to an
inconvenient site, may well have been overcome by one of
these tales of wonder. It is notable that Llanllechid is
almost the only church occurring in these legends in which

* See an interesting article, ** Some Traditions and Superstitions
connected with Buildings," by G. L. Gomme, in 7'Ae Antiquary for
January, i88i (Vol. iii., p. 3).

34 LORE. AND LfiCEKD OF 1HE ENGUSH CHURCH.

the final situation was more convenient than the earlier
one.

On the tower of Winwick Church the story of its erection
is kept alive (as is that of the indication of the site at
Durham) by a carving; above the western door is the
figure of a pig, with the following '' dog-Latin " verses,

" I lie hjcus, Oswalde, quondam placuit tibi valde,
Northanhumbronim fueras Rex, nuncque polonim
Kegna tenet, loco pasfus Marcelde vocato,''

which, turned into English of the same stamp, run thus —

" O Oswald, lately this place pleased thee greatly ;
King of Northumbrians, thou above the heavens now
Dost live and reign, though at Marcelde slain."

One is not surprised to find that the malice of the evil
powers was not vanquished by their defeat, nor appeased
by their victory, in the contest concerning the site of a
church. At Rudston, Yorkshire, for instance, the Devil
made a desperate effort to destroy the building, and the
evidence remains to this day. Within the churchyard
stands a monolith, some twenty-four feet in height above
the ground, and supposed to reach to an equal depth below,
the weight being computed at about forty tons. This, the
local legend alleges, was flung at the church by his Satanic
majesty ; but luckily in this, as in other somewhat similar
cases, his malice and his might were not equalled by his
accuracy as a marksman, and the huge missile fell short by
a few yards. It is suggested that we have here another
example of the consecration to Christian usage of a spot
held in reverence by the Pagans, for a tradition of the super-
natural appears to have attached to this stone from remote
antiquity, and the name of the village is alleged to mean

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 25

"the famous stone/' from the Scandinavian "hrodrsteinn."
Legends of this type are more common on the Continent
than with us : throughout northern Germany and Scan-
dinavia, a story similar to the one above is a usual method
of explaining the presence of isolated rocks, but some giant
or trolly and not the Devil, is the assailant of the church.

In curious opposition to the theory of the sanctity of holy
ground — as illustrated by the rights of sanctuary, and in
other ways — ^are a number of weird legends of the diabolical
possession of certain churches. These stories meet us
chiefly in Wales and in the Isle of Man, the traditions of
both districts being often singularly wild and gruesome.

Within Cerrig-y-drudion Church once dwelt a malevolent
spirit, which grinned so horribly from the windows at all who
passed by, that even in the day-time all avoided the place.
At last, on the advice of a " wise man,'' two famous oxen of
great strength were procured, and the spirit was, after great
efforts, secured and bound to a sledge drawn by them !
Away rushed the team with the hideous load, ploughing the
land deep as they went, and marking the very rocks with
their hoofs ; and at last oxen, sledge, and the madly
struggling spirit plunged into a neighbouring lake, and
disappeared for ever. Llanfor Church has a legend similar
in several of its details, though the spirit in this appears to
have been harmless and even fairly well-behaved. It took
the form of a gentleman in a cocked-hat ; and by day made
itself chiefly conspicuous by attending divine service, and
standing throughout it. At night, however, he indulged
in a blaze of light within the church, though if others came
in, when it happened to be dark, to look for anything, the
spirit blew their lights out. The ejection in this case was

26 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

managed in an orderly manner. Two j)ersons skilled in
such matters called upon the intruder, and informed him of
their intention to come at a certain hour of night and convey
him to a lake and " lay *' him ; and apparently no further
trouble would have arisen, but that the two did not keep
their appointment punctually. This nettled the cocked-
hatted gentleman, and led to some opposition on his part ;
but finally he was got out, and in the form of a cock was
carried on horse-back to the lake, and persuaded to jump
in ; and there he must remain until he has counted all the
sand at the bottom of it. There are versions of this storv
varying in detail ; in one, for instance, the spirit becomes
not a cock, but a pig. A terrible struggle took place in
Llandysilis Church between a spirit (who during his
residence there had cracked some of the beams) and a man
who sought to eject him. The final act is precisely the
same as in the former stories ; the spirit is drowned in a
pool, but in this case on being overcome the enemy took
the form of a huge fly. There is a Manx tale to the effect
that a Buggane^ an evil spirit, would not permit the
completion of the church of S. Trinian ; for as soon as the
work was at the point of terminating, the fiend would fling
the roof off amid yells of devilish laughter. Only once was
an attempt made to withstand him, and then no practical
result was attained beyond proving the temerity of one
Master Timothy, a tailor. This local hero vowed that he
would sit in the almost finished church and make a pair of
breeches, before the fiend could again destroy the roof.
Timothy worked with might and main, and refused to have
his attention distracted, though the Buggane rose before
him out of the ground, terrible in huge limbs and vast head

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 2^

with wide and awful eyes. Just as the apparition had wholly
revealed its size and form, the tailor put the last stitch to his
work, and sprang from the building, and once more the roof
fell with a crash. England is not entirely without stories of a
somewhat parallel kind, though they are not so numerous.
The tale of the ** Roaring Bull o' Bagbury," in Shropshire,
has many points of similarity to those told above. In this
case, however, the objectionable occupant of the church was
the restless soul of a certain farmer or "squire," who, in the
form of a bull, so disturbed the neighbourhood that he was
at last driven into the church at Hyssington, in order that he
might the more easily be "laid." "Twelve parsons"
assembled to lay him, and entered the church armed with
candles. The bull in his rage blew out all the candles but
one, and cracked the wall of the church, and the cracks may
be seen to this day. At last, however, he was so
over-powered that he was got into a snuff-box ! And was
thus laid in the Red Sea for a thousand years.

In these legends, some of which are almost childish in
their wild marvels, any meaning is not at first obvious. But
may we not see in them, especially in those of Welsh and
Manx origin, the survival of ancient memories concerning the
struggles between a new and an old faith ? The conquest
of Paganism by Christianity, and especially the acquisition of
the holy places of the former by the latter, may, perhaps, be the
kernel of historic truth thus strangely wrapped up in legend ;
but some have thought that a struggle and a conquest yet
earlier, between rival forms of heathenism, have probably
lived on in the recollection of the people, and now meet us
in this weird guise. In any case a complete victory won by
one party, and apparently a signal vengeance inflicted upon

28 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

the Other, reminding one of the conclusion of Elijah's
contest with the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, seems to
be not obscurely suggested.

The earliest churches of Christendom were probably
oblong in figure, often with a semi-circular termination, or
apse, eastwards ; but when the faithful became rich enough,
and had liberty allowed them, to build churches openly,
and after such designs as they wished, different ground-plans
were adopted, according to fancy or local custom. The
" Apostolical Constitutions," a work dating probably from the
fourth or fifth century, orders that " the building be long,
with its head to the east, with its vestries on both sides
at the east end, and so it will be like a ship ; in the middle
let the bishop's throne be placed, and on each side of him
let the priesthood sit down." Yet the churches erected
at Antioch by the Emperor Constantine, and at Nazianzum
by the father of S. Gregory, were octagonal ; the church of
the Holy Sepulchre, founded by the same emperor, was
circular ; and at an early date cruciform churches were
built in some places, as in the examples of the one dedicated
to the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, and one built
by S. Simeon Stylites, and described by Evagrius.

In England it is very evident that the earliest churches
were humble structures, suitable to the means and the taste
of a people but just emerging from barbarism. A simple
parallelogram would doubtless be the form commonly
chosen, with walls of timber and roof of thatch. In the
quaint little church at Greenstead we have an example
of such a building, which, so far as the major part of it
is concerned, has probably weathered the storms of well-nigh
nine centuries. It is only fair, however, to admit that

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 29

in this case the stracture was probably only meant originally
as a chapel ; there is ample evidences, however, of
ecclesiastical erections of greater importance having been
formed in much the same primitive fashion. The great
abbey of Croyland was, as Ingulphus tells us, built origin-
ally of logs and planks ; and such also was Malmesbury
Abbey m the days of King Edgar, and Glastonbury in those
of Canute. Finan, the successor of S. Aidan in the see of
Lindisfame, built himself a church on the island *' of hewn
oak covered with reeds ; " and it was the strangeness of the
sight of a church built of stone by S. Ninian that gained
its name for Whitheme, or White House, in Galloway.
Durham still had a wooden chapel of S. Aldhdm down
to 998, and at Bury S. Edmunds one survived so late
as 1303.*

S. Edward the Confessor is reputed to have introduced
cruciform churches into England in the erection of West-
minster Abbey ; and that ground-plan has since been adopted
for almost all our larger churches, and for many of the
smaller ones. The legend, which has already been noticed,
to the effect that four cows lying crosswise both indicated
the site and suggested the form of the church at Alfiiston,
seems to point to a time when the cruciform design was not
recognised as in any way a common one in the country.

A form more curious and less usual is the circular, of
which several examples are to be found in England.

Allusion has already been made to the round church
which was originally built over the alleged site of the Holy

* See the qaesdon of wooden churches, or stave-kirks, treated at
some length by the author in ** The Church Treasury of History,
Custom, Folk-Lore, etc** (Andrews & Co., 1898.)

30 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Sepulchre ; and it is the memory of this venerable building
which is p>erpetuated in our churches of a similar design.
The Knights Templars in the Preceptories which they
erected throughout Europe preserved the form of that
sacred place which they had been specially enrolled to
defend ; and it is to them that we owe our round churches.
In the Temple Church, in London, we have "the chief
ecclesiastical edifice of the Knights Templars in Britain, and
the most beautiful and perfect memorial of the Order now in
existence." The rotunda was erected about the year 1185,
the rest being added during the following century. S.
Sepulchre's, Cambridge, is the oldest of the group of buildings
of this type still surviving in England. The rotunda here is
of Norman architecture, and to this a chancel was added
about 1 31 3. Northampton has another round church, also
dedicated in the name of S. Sepulchre. The characteristic
portion was built in the end of the eleventh century, and to
this large additions were made at later times. The only
other example, and the smallest, is at Little Maplestead, in
Essex. This parish was granted to the Templars by the
Lady Juliana de Burgo in 1186, and the buildings were
probably commenced soon afterwards. The rotunda measures
only thirty feet in diameter, and from this runs a chancel
another thirty feet in length, but only fifteen in width. At
the commencement of this century this interesting little
church stood roofless and well-nigh ruined. It has since
been repaired, but necessarily at the cost of much of the
original work. A yet smaller round church stood at one
time on the heights of Dover ; its diameter being but twenty-
five feet, and its chancel measuring twenty-seven by fourteen.
Only the foundations now remain of this ancient edifice, in

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 3 1

which, tradition says, took place the conference between
King John and the legate Pandulf. There are many Con-
tinental examples of churches of this kind, at Laon, Metz,
Cologne, Treves, Salamanca, Bologne, Rome, and elsewhere.

The custom of placing the chancel and altar at the east
end of the church, though ancient and everywhere common,
has scarcely anywhere been preserved so scrupulously as in
England. A quotation given above from the "Apostolic
Constitutions," proves its early use in the east, and observa-
tion only is needed to show its prevalence in the west. Yet
Stephen, bishop of Tournay, in a letter to Lucius III., pope
from 1 181 to II 85, speaks of this orientation as a peculiarity
at S. Benet's, Paris ; and there are churches in Italy where
the altar stands at the west end. An exception to what was
certainly the primitive rule in England is exceedingly rare
among churches of any antiquity. In more modern structures
the nature of the only possible site in a crowded town, or
the carelessness or ignorance of those responsible for the
erection, have sometimes violated the ancient custom. Thus
two small, and comparatively modern, churches in Lincoln-
shire are exceptions. At Well the altar stands at the west
end, the entrance being at the east ; at Eastville the church
stands north and south, with the altar at the south. Prob-
ably the builder of the latter was not aware that S. Patrick
had set him a precedent ; yet the Apostle of the Irish, ac-
cording to Jocelin, his biographer, erected a church in that
manner at Sabul, near Down, in Ulster.

Though the orientation of our churches has been for the
most part preserved, yet it is not an uncommon thing for
them to vary several points from due east and w^st. There
is a theory that the exact degree of inclination was deter-

32 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

mined by marking the spot on the horizon at which the sun
rose, on the feast day of the saint in whose honour the church
was to be dedicated. The theory is ingenious, and possibly
has an amount of truth in it with regard to some instances ;
but it can hardly be counted as more than a theory.

There are many curious facts and stories in connection
with the raising of funds for building churches in mediaeval
times. In a very large number of instances our parish
churches were built at the sole charge of some wealthy and
pious lord of the manor, or by some great monastic house ;
even in such vast structures as our cathedrals much was
also done voluntarily, the monks being their own architects,
sculptors, and masons in many cases. But in bygone
times, as well as in modern ones, it was not always that the
needful funds came readily to the hands of those who
desired to build.

Any place which possessed an attraction for pilgrims was
glad to turn that fact to account for the improvement of its
church. It was the offerings at the shrine of S. Wilfrid
which assisted in the completion of the Collegiate Church,
now the Cathedral, of Ripon ; and the east window at
Rochester is the fruit of the alms-box beside the shrine of
S. William of Perth ; and these are but types of what went
on throughout the country in those early days. Again it
frequently happened that a gild or confraternity would
undertake to build, or it may be to keep in repair, some
portion of a church. Ludlow Church has an iron arrow
affixed to the roof of the north chancel aisle, marking the
fact that that portion of the church is the Fletchers' chancel,
or chantry chapel of the gild of arrowsmiths. It is surely
reasonable to suppose that the chapel thus marked with

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 33

their emblem was built wholly, or largely, at their expense.
The local legend used to be (it seems to have died out
now) that Robin Hood, standing on one of the tumuli hard
by, which is still called by his name, aimed with his bow
and arrow at the weathercock on the steeple ; but that his
arrow, missing the mark, stuck in the roof, where it is now
to be seen. Even such a marksman as "bold Robin
Hood " might be pardoned for inaccuracy of aim, had he to
shoot with iron arrows. In the fourteenth century the
young men of Yarmouth designed to build an aisle, the
" Bachelors' Aisle," in addition to those already existing in
their parish church, but the outbreak of the Black Death
put a stop to their work. The inscription "Young Men
and Maydens," which is cut twice on the fine tower of All
Saints' Church, Derby, is supposed to commemorate the
fact that the bachelors and the maidens of the town made
themselves responsible for its erection up to that point.

Some carving on the west front of Bath Abbey is
commemorative of a vision which led to the restoration of
that building. Oliver King, on his translation, in 1495,
from the see of Exeter to that of Bath and Wells, found the
abbey in the latter city in absolute ruin. While meditating
one night over this grievous state of things, he saw a vision
like that of Jacob of old — a ladder up which the holy
angels passed, while at the top glowed the presence of the
Blessed Trinity. Beside the ladder a fair olive-tree spread
its branches in support of a royal crown ; and a voice
seemed to say in his ear, " Let an Olive establish the crown,
and a King restore the church.'* Encouraged by this divine
intimation, he set manfully to work to rebuild the abbey in
the year 1500; and although he did not live to see it

3

34 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

completed, he was able to do much ; and on the western
front he carved the ladder of his vision.

Another Somersetshire story of church building comes
from Monksilver, and here, too, it wreathes itself around
some carving in the church. In the heads of the windows
in the south aisle are cut the figures of a hammer, a nail, a
pair of pincers, and a horse-shoe ; whereby, the villagers say,
hangs this tale. Long years ago a worthy blacksmith in the
place sent to Bristol for a hundredweight of iron, and in due
time received a sack filled with metal. But when he opened
it, it proved to be full of glistening gold ! In thankfulness for
this sudden wealth, he built this south aisle to his parish
church, and commemorated in the carving the fact that it
was a blacksmith's gift. The legend does not condescend
to tell us what steps (if any) the worthy man took to find
the true owner of the wealth ; '* finding is keeping '* usually
in folk-lore tales.

When a public appeal had to be made for funds, the
usual method in past ages was by means of briefs. The
word was applied originally to a form of pontifical letter
issued by the pope, somewhat less solemn and weighty in
character than a bull. It came latterly in England to be
used of letters patent issued by the sovereign authorizing
and recommending the collection of alms on behalf of a
specified cause. It occurs in this sense in the office for the
Holy Eucharist in the Prayer-book, where, after the Nicene
Creed, there is a rubic which runs, " Then also (if occasion
be) shall . . . Briefs, Citations, and Excommunications
be read." The use of these authoritative documents was
abolished by Act of Parliament (9 Geo. IV., c. 28) in 1828 ;
but the name continued to be used loosely of circular

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 35

appeals for help in cases of emergency. Briefs, both in the
legal and the popular sense, were often issued for the
building and the repair of churches. In the parish of
Witney, in the diocese of Oxford, the sum of 5s. 6j4d, was
thus collected in 1700 for Ely Cathedral, and in 1702
;^i IS. 7d. for Chester Cathedral. At Westmeon, Hamp-
shire, 5 s. 6d. was raised by a brief for All Saints* Church,
Oxford, 4s. for Kentford Church, Suffolk, in 17 15, and
many other similar sums for churches in all parts of
England ; for briefs seem to have been used very freely in
that parish, or perhaps a fuller record of them has been kept
there than in the generality of cases. The parish of
Hadstock, Essex, has also a long list of briefs, many of them
on behalf of churches.

A glance at a list of these briefs as preserved in some of
our parish records emphasizes most startlingly the dangers
of fire in the last century, and the terrible havoc thus wrought
in those days. The ground of appeal with painfully
recurring frequency is damage, and often evidently extensive
damage, by fire. It must be remembered that much timber
was still used in building; there was little attempt at
organized methods of coping with fire, except in London
and some few of the large towns, and fire insurance was
scarcely ever thought of.*

* Insurance against fire first became recognized as a business in 1667,
the year after the Great Fire of London, though some gilds gave help to
their members who had suffered loss in this way. Insurance was, how-
ever, used only to a limited extent down to quite recent times, one
hindrance being the fact that the Government, in 1782, imposed an
annual duty (in addition to the stamp) upon each insurance, which
amounted at one time to 2C0 per cent, of the premium ! It was not
wholly abolished until 1869. The insurance of Church property is now
compulsory.

$6 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The mention of the ravages wrought by fire upon churches
brings us naturally to some legends and superstitions
concerning their destruction ; and, to go for a moment
beyond the borders of the English Church, it may be pointed
out that among the Danes the appearance of a raven, almost
everywhere a bird of ill-omen, in a village is believed to
foretell the death of the parish priest, or the burning-down of
the church.

The Manx folk have a firm conviction that to use for
secular purposes any place that has been dedicated to sacred
usage bodes no good. To pasture one's sheep within the
ground marked by a " Druidic " circle will probably bring
disease to the flock, and there is no more withering curse
than that carried in the words, " Clogh ny killagh ayns
corneil dty hie mooar." (May a stone of the church be
found in the corner of thy house.) A stone was taken from
S. Luke's Chapel, in Baldwin, and carried to a farmhouse ;
but the whole family was kept awake by such supernatural
sounds that it had to be removed. Someone accordingly
placed it on the earthen fence of one of the fields, but the
fence crumbled away beneath it. Finally it was taken back
to the chapel, and all was well once more. In a house built
on the site of an old Roman Catholic chapel on the south
side of Douglas, the occupants heard nightly the tramp and
shuffle of many feet, as of the arrival and departure of a con-
gregation of people. In some parts of the country an idea
prevails that it is unlucky, even for needful repairs or other
justifiable cause, to have any hand in pulling down a church.

The fancy that where a church has been destroyed some
signs of its existence may still be seen or heard, is of
common occurrence. At Fisherty Brow, near Kirkby

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 37

Lonsdale, is a hollow where it is said a whole parish was
once upon a time swallowed up, and where every Sunday
the engulphed bells may yet be heard ringing. Crosmere
Lake, Shropshire, covers an ancient chapel whose bells still
ring whenever the waters are ruffled. But legends of this
type are indeed legion.

On many points along the British coasts the sea has so far
encroached that whole parishes with their churches now lie
beneath the tide. At Kilgrimal, near Blackpool, legend says
that a church has been devoured by the sea, but that on
Christmas Eve its bells may still be heard joyously pealing.
Nothing now remains above high-water mark of the greater
part of the parish of Mablethorpe S. Peter, Lincolnshire.
The Yorkshire coast has several similar instances. Burstall
Priory was swept away by the Humber before Henry VIIL
and his creatures looted and destroyed the monastic houses ;
the chapel of S. Mary at Ravenspur, about the year 1355,
was overwhelmed ; about 1450 S. Mary's, Withernsea,
shared the same fate, and the church at Auburn was taken
down in 1731 to avoid it. Within the present century the
churches of Kilnsea, Out Newton, and Owthorne have all
been undermined, and have crumbled and fallen into the sea;
and the tide now ebbs and flows across their sites. The
victorious ocean is marching on to achieve new conquests
in the same districts ; Tunstall, near Owthorne, is but 600
yards from the sea, though a century since it was separated
from it by a distance of 924 yards. Aldborough Church
contains a tablet taken from one erected by Ulf before the
Conquest ; Ulfs church has long been beneath the waves ;
and Aldborough, though still a mile and a half from them,
sees them roll daily nearer.

38 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Pethaps the most startling case of all is that of Dunwich,
in Suffolk. Here we have a place, once a thriving seaport,
the seat of the first East-Anglian bishopric, a town which
contributed over a thousand marks to King Richard I.,
when Ipswich and Yarmouth were assessed only at two
hundred each. But the advancing sea has destroyed most
of the town, and left only the ruin of one church out of
twelve which once rang out their bells across Southwold
Bay, Again, yet further south, the Rev. Francis Green,
vicar of Reculver from 1695 ^^ ^T^^j wrote of his own
parish, " The current tradition of the place is that the parish
church stood about a mile into the sea, upon a place called
by the inhabitants * The Black Rock ' " ; and this tradition is
confirmed by a record in the GentlemarCs Magazine^ to the
effect that "On Saturday morning, January 3, 1784, there
was a lower ebb tide all along the Kentish coast than has
been known for many years. ... At Reculver, the
Black Rock (as it is called) being left dry, the foundations
of the ancient parish church were discovered, which had not
been seen for forty years before."

Everyone knows the story of the swallowing by the sea of
the " Land of the Lyonnesse," the tract between Cornwall
and the Scilly Isles. In that disaster legend avers that one
hundred and forty parish churches were overwhelmed. In
several cases Cornish churches, though not engulphed by
the sea, have been buried in drifting sands. At Perranza-
buloe is an ancient church, of which it was supposed that
nothing but the memory survived, until in 1835 the shifting
of the sands disclosed it once more. At Gwithian is
another, which has fared somewhat similarly. Near
Padstow stands the old church of S. Enodock, which the

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 39

sand-drifts have almost made their own. Being in a solitary
situation it has been almost abandoned ; but service is still
said there once a year, although it is said the parish priest
has before now been compelled to enter through a window,
or by a hole in the roof, in order to conduct it.

There are other instances of the occasional use of ruined,
or almost ruined, churches. In the early part of this
century the carol-singers in one district of West Cornwall,
after having made their round of the villages, met in the
dilapidated baptistery of S. Levan and sang a number
of carols. In connection with two wakes, held in the Abbey
Foregate suburb of Shrewsbury, and known as the Cherry
wakes and the Eel-pie wakes (from the dishes sacred to the
occasions), service was sung, with the assistance of a string-
band, in the ruined church of S. Giles. In 1836, however,
the church was restored, and the divine offices ceased to
be exceptional things there. Every Ascension Day used
to be marked by a service in the chapel of Finchale Abbey,
near Durham, which was performed by the clergy and choir
of S. Oswald's in the city. Many are the sanctuaries
throughout the land, mighty abbeys and wayside chapels, of
which, unfortunately, the sacred character has been practically
forgotten, and which have been preverted to base uses. But
the field which this memory opens to us is too wide for us
to enter upon here.

Before closing our chapter upon the folk-lore and legends
which have grown up about the construction of our churches,
a note or two upon a few buildings which are quaint or
curious may be added.

The existence of twin churches — or two standing in one
churchyard — has given rise to many fanciful stories. Of

40 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

this siDgukr anangement there are several escamples in the
Eastern counties. At Swafifham Prior, Cambridgeshire, we
have S, Cyriac's and S. Mary's thus situated ; at Trimley,
Suffolk, are S. Mary's and S. Martin's; and there are instances
in Norfolk. At Albrighton and Donington, in Shropshire,
the parish churches are placed in the adjacent limits of their
parishes, and are thus close together. The local story, in
almost every case, is to the effect that the two buildings were
erected in rivalry, the builders, curiously enough, being very
frequently described as sisters. It is not improbable that
in cases where two neighbouring barons divided a village
between them, each may have built a church in some cases,
neither being willing to give precedence to the other, or to
accept the ministrations of his nominee.

The largest church in England — ^that is the one covering
the greatest number of square yards — is York Minster, S.
Paul's Cathedral coming second. The largest churches
other than cathedrals are the abbeys of Beverley and
Tewkesbury; but the largest parish church, which was
built as such and not as a monastic church, is that of
Yarmouth, Coventry being the next in size.*

To decide which is the smallest church in England is not
quite so simple ; but there are many that are as quaintly
interesting for their diminutiveness as others are impressive
by their vastness. The church which George Herbert
served so well, at Bemerton, near Salisbury, seats but forty
people ; and I^uUington, Sussex, holds not many more than

* A comparison of the axea of these six churches, representing three
classes of foundations, may be interesting to the reader ; the figures in
square feet are as follows : York, 63,800 ; S, Paul's* 59,700; Beverley,
29,600 ; Tewkesbury, 26,000 ; Yarmouth, 23,265 ; Coventiy, 22,08a

THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 4 1

its twenty-five parishioners. Bradford-on-Avon Church has
a nave only twenty-four feet long by thirteen feet wide, with
a chancel thirteen feet long by ten feet wide : this relic of
past ages (it was built by S. Aldhem in 705) is not now
used, but is carefully preserved. The churches of Culbone
and Charlcombe, in Somersetshire, and Fen ton, in Essex,
each claims to be the smallest in England. The
churches of Woldingham, Surrey; Stopham and Selham,
Sussex ; Coates, Lincolnshire ; Farndish, Bedfordshire, and
many others, will not contain a hundred people. Probably
the smallest, as originally erected, was S. Laurence's
Church, in the Isle of Wight ; but it has been lengthened
by fifteen feet, and now seats a congregation of 107. A
late parish clerk has thus celebrated its proportions : —

" Its breadth, from side to side above the bench,
Is just eleven feet and half an inch ;
Its height, from pavement to the ceiling mortar,
Eleven feet four inches and a quarter ;
And its whole length from the east to the west end, —
I tell the truth, on which you may depend —
'Twas twenty-five feet, four inches, quarters three,
But now 'tis forty feet as you may see.
In eleven hundred and ninety-seven
'Twas built to show us the way to Heaven."

Amongst other churches in England which present, either
by accident or design, peculiarities of construction, mention
may be made of Abbey Dore, the chapel of the ancient
abbey, which consists of the transepts, choir, and Lady
Chapel only of the original building. Very similar is All
Saints', Pontefract, which is now almost reduced to a
condition of breadth without length, the transepts of a
splendid church, which was wrecked during the Civil Wars,
being all that is now used. Kilpeck Church is a curiously

42 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

elaborate structure for its size, its Norman doorways and
arches being beautifully carved. S. Helen's, Abingdon,
consisted until 1873 of five alleys of about equal breadth,
and named respectively (commencing at the northern side)
Jesus Aisle, Our lady's, S. Helen's, Holy Cross, and S.
Catherine's ; the total breadth being greater than the length.
At the restoration, in the year named, S. Helen's aisle was
raised so as to allow of the insertion of clerestory windows,
and thus the strange uniformity was lost. At Berwick-on-
Tweed is one of the few churches — if indeed it be not the
unique example — erected during the days of the Common-
wealth, and this is perfectly original in its architecture. But,
indeed, out of the thousands of our churches, great and
small, ancient and modern. Classic and Gothic, there are
very few which have not some features which make them
interesting.

CHAPTER III.

WHY do churches have steeples ? The temples of no
other faith are so adorned : the Greek and the
Roman were content with the dignity of portico and
colonnade ; the Israelite fronted his temple only with the
twin pillars, Jachin and Boaz; the Egyptian reared his
obelisks, or formed his avenue of sphinxes; the Eastern
religions build their pagodas — but none use tower or spire
to glorify their fanes. The Mohammedan, it is true, adds
minarets to his mosque, but Mohammedanism has gleaned
from both Christianity and Judaism in forming its faith, and
may well have used imitation in this respect also. The
more the question is faced, the more evidently it appears to
be connected with this other fact, that Christianity alone
uses peals of bells. In other words, as the employment of
large bells grew into use, so the need of some structure,
strong enough to sustain their weight, and lofty enough to
give full play to their voices, became evident. Thus even
the architect designing a Christian church in the severest
classical mode, was compelled to find room for an elevated
belfry of some kind, as in the ingenious quasi-classical
spires erected in such numbers and variety by Sir Chris-
topher Wren. And it is worthy of notice in this connection
that Christian sects which abandoned — or were forbidden —
the use of bells, abandoned the building of steeples also.

44 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

It is true that the English Dissenters have taken in com-
paratively recent years to giving spires — generally meagre
and half-hearted specimens, evidently not for use, and
almost equally evidently not for ornament — to their places
of worship ; but these are confessedly imitations of the
architecture of the Church.

If then we grant this to be the ground of the existence of
our steeples, we are not surprised — recalling how deeply all
evil spirits are known to hate the voices of the bells — to
find that the Devil has endeavoured to prevent their erection,
as we have seen he sometimes has done in the case of the
church itself. At Towednack, Cornwall, the story goes that
the Prince of Darkness never permitted the completion of
the tower, but that he pertinaciously destroyed by night all
that the industry of the masons could erect by day. At
West Walton, Norfolk, his interference took another form ;
the tower was built, but the Devil carried it off; and there it
now stands, at a distance from the church. In this instance
it was, we are told, the wickedness of the Fenmen which
gave the arch-enemy his power of obstruction.

But if demons hindered, saints sometimes helped, as is
evidenced by the legend of Probus steeple. The church
here was built by the saint from whom the parish takes its
name ; but the holy man, like others less marked by sanctity,
was troubled by want of funds, and was at his wits' end for
means to erect a tower. At last he begged the assistance of
S. Grace, and through her the required sum was found, and
the church finished. Then S. Probus, yielding to the temp-
tation to pride, took to himself no small credit for the
completed work, until he was reproved and humbled by a
mysterious voice which sang through the air,

THE CHURCH STEEPLE. 45

" S. Probus and Grace,
Not the first but the last."

The tower of Ashton-under-Lyne had several yards of its
masonry built by a woman, who suddenly appeared among
the workmen, and found them engaged in playing cards.
She promised to do a portion of their labour for them if they

succeeded in turning up an ace ; and, luckily for them, the

«

next card in the pack proved to be the ace of spades. In
memory of this strange occurrence an ace of spades was
carved upon the tower. Such is the story : it probably owes
its origin to the fact that an escutcheon, not unlike the
figure on the card named, was placed upon the tower, and
was misunderstood by the local folk.

The church at Ormskirk has both a tower and a spire, a
fact which is thus accounted for. Two maiden sisters of the
name of Orm undertook the building, but quarrelled about
the completion of it, one contending for a tower only, the
other insisting upon having a spire. By way of compromise
each built according to her fancy, so that the church got
both. The probability is, it must be confessed, that the
sisters Orm are a myth, and that the tower was erected to
hold a full ring of bells, the earlier tower, which is capped by
the spire, not being large enough for the purpose. The tower
of Prestwich Church is adorned with a series of curious
carvings ; high up on the parapet, and mostly on the south
side, are a number of quaint scenes, a goose defending her
goslings from the attack of a fox, a swan floating amid her
cygnets, musicians playing upon wind instruments, a man
holding a muzzled dog, and angels carrying shields.

The elevated character of this portion of the church
fabric has made it serviceable in several ways, not all of

46 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

them very admirable. There are several instances of the
steeple having been used for acrobatic performances. In
1553 a Dutchman mounted the spire of old S. Paul's, and
standing upon the apex waved a flag, for which he was paid
jCi6 ; thereby illustrating a remark of Pilkington, bishop of
Durham, in a sermon preached on "The burnynge of
Paules Church in the yeare of our Lord 1561, and the
iiii. day of June, by lyghtnynge"; "From the top of the
spire," he says, "at coronations, or other solemn triumphs,
some for vain glory used to throw themselves down by a rope,
and so killed themselves vainly to please other men's eyes."
At the reception of Philip of Spain in 1555, "a fellow came
slipping upon a cord, as an arrow out of a bow, from Paul's
steeple to the ground, and lighted with his head forward on
a greate sort of feather bed." King George III., with his
characteristic common-sense, dismissed a man who had
tried to entertain him with a like stupid performance on
Salisbury spire, with the remark, "As the father of my
people, it is my duty to reward those who save life, and not
those who risk human life," In 1732 a man named
Cadman slid down a rope stretched from the top of All
Saints', Derby, to the bottom of S. Michael's ; he tried
the feat at Shrewsbury in 1740, and was killed.
Meanwhile another performer had appeared in Derby; in
1734 a man came down a rope from All Saints' tower to the
bottom ofS, Mary'sGate, drawing afterhima wheel-barrow in
whichsat a lad of thirteen years of age. He next sent an ass
down on the same aerial flight ; but when the animal was
some twenty yards from the end of its journey the rope
broke at the top ; people were overthrown by the falling ass,
chimneys were brought down by the rope, and panic and

TH£ CHURCH STKfiPLK. 47

confiiBioD were liie result. No lives were lost, but Acre
were no more acrobatic feats on All Saints' tower.

In 160D a famous performer of the time named Banks,
and his not less famous horse, Morocco, ascended to the
top of S. Paul's steeple, and stood astride the vane. One
other instance of a much earlier date, shows that the Churdi
was roused to protest against these useless and dangerous
exhibitions, at any rate when they ended fatally. In 1237
a man gave an acrobatic display on a rope stretched between
the towers of Durham Cathedral, and fell and broke his
neck. The Prior of the Abbey, who had the privilege of
wearing the mitre, was censured and deprived of that
distinction for countenancing the performance.

The existence of this practice shows how strong a tendency
there has often been to treat the tower as scarcely an integral
part of the sacred building ; and the same fact is illustrated
by the way in which it has often been used as a lumber
room for all kinds of scarcely ecclesiastical properties. In
the spire of S. Cuthbert's Church, Elsdon, was discovered a
smaU chamber containing the skulls of three horses ; but
these have been held to have been something more than
lumber ; antiquaries seeing in them a relic of the cultus of
the horse, of the existence of which in England there are
several evidences. S. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, contains, or
did contain, a more remarkable relic in the rib of a monster
cow, which " once upon a time " supplied the whole city
with milk. The rib, as a matter of fact, is a bone from a
whale. The same tower contained the old chests in which
Chatterton alleged that he found Rowley's poems ; and in
this S. Mary's is by no means alone, many a tower serving
for the storage of old documents, of more or less interest.

48 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The prominent position of the church tower was long
since recognized as fitting it especially to hold a large clock
for the convenience of all the parish; and around this
accidental appendage to the church some superstitions have
grown. In Veryan, Cornwall, for example, there is a
tradition that, should the church clock strike the hour during
the singing of the hymn preceding the sermon on Sunday
morning, or before the third collect at evensong, there will
be a death in the parish during the week. In Shropshire
the death-token is given by the clock striking during the
announcement of the text for the sermon on Sunday
morning, or (especially at Baschurch) while the final hymn
is singing. In some parts of Yorkshire, and probably
elsewhere, it is regarded as singularly unlucky for the clock
to strike while a wedding-party is in the church ; and the
present writer has known a bride and her friends, who lived
immediately opposite the church, flatly decline to leave
the house until the clock had struck, the wedding having
been arranged for a quarter to the hour for the convenience
of the priest, who had come some distance to officiate.

In more than one place in England the custom has arisen
of holding a short service, usually consisting of hymns
and anthems, on the top of the tower on some special
anniversary. Pilkington, in the sermon quoted above,
alludes to a similar usage in old S. Paul's; '^at the
battlements of the steeple sundry times were used their
popish anthems to call upon their gods with torch and taper
in the evenings." At the battle of Neville's Cross,
October 17 th, 1346, the monks of Durham ascended the
great tower of their cathedral and watched eagerly the
progress of the fight, chanting litanies the while ; and when

THE CHURCH STEEPLE. 49

at last victory declared itself on the side of the English, they
broke into a joyful Te Deum as an act of thanksgiving.
Every year in memory of that event the songs of praise rang
out once more from the same place, until the Puritan
supremacy under the Commonwealth put a stop to almost
all signs of joy in church and out of it. At the Restoration
the custom was revived, but the date was changed to the
29th May, and it continues on that day annually to the
present time. Originally an anthem was sung on each side
of the tower ; but a chorister, having unhappily fallen on one
occasion from the north side, that battlement has been
avoided ever since. The custom of singing a hymn to the
Holy Trinity on Magdalen Tower, Oxford, at sunrise on
May Day, though in keeping with the feeling of bygone
days, is not a very ancient usage. May it, however, continue
until it has become so !

In the stormy days of long ago, when warfare often
stalked across the land, the prominence of the church towers
led to their being utilized very differently from the way last
referred to. In many places, especially along the Scottish
border and in the Welsh Marches, we find towers that have
been fortified for defensive purposes. The tower of Great
Salkeld Church, Cumberland, has only one entrance, namely,
through the sacred building itself, and the door is iron-clad,
and fitted on the inside with stout bars. Within this
ecclesiastical keep the town armour was placed. In the
same county we meet with other examples at Burgh- on-the-
Sands and at Newton. Bedale, Middleham, and Melsonby,
in Yorkshire, all have fortified towers, the first named
having even a portcullis guarding its narrow stair.

The instances in which churches and their towers were

4

50 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

put to military use, without having been actually constructed
with that incongruous object in view, are numerous ; in fact
during the great Civil War it seems to have been common.
The troopers of the Parliament made temporary fortresses of
the churches of Powderham and Ottery S. Mary ; while the
Royalists occupied those of Tiverton, S. Budeaux, and
Townstall ; these examples all occurring in the single county
of Devon. The half-ruined condition of the old parish
church of Pontefract is due to its use in the same way.

It would be tedious to give anything approaching to a
full list of notable towers and spires in England. One or
two notes upon the subject, however, will appropriately
close this chapter. The central tower at York, built in
1260, claims to be the largest in the country, though to the
eyes of some the Rood Tower at Lincoln is the most
splendid. The Bell Harry Tower at Canterbury was once
the '* Angel Steeple," a great gilded angel gleaming out from
its summit in the olden time to greet the pilgrims to
S. Thomas's shrine. The spire of Salisbury, soaring in
exquisite proportions 404 feet into the air, is one of the
architectural gems of the country ; nor should one forget
the spire of Chichester, nor the triple spires of Lichfield,
nor the splendid lantern tower of Ely. Among parish
churches Boston claims pre-eminence for the height of its
tower, and does not readily yield to another on the score of
beauty; Taunton, Wrexham, Ludlow, and All Saints',
Derby, possess splendid and massive towers; and the
steeple of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with its beautiful crown,
compels the admiration of every beholder, even if he cannot
quite subscribe to the enthusiastic words of a late vicar of
the town (the Rev. Joseph Dacre), who, in 1804, declared

THE CHURCH STEEPLE. 5 1

it to be, in his opinion, " the most beautiful in the world,
which surpasses the cathedral of S. Sophia at Constanti-
nople, the mosque of Sultan Saladin at Jerusalem, the
church of S. Peter at Rome, even the temple of Minerva at
Athens." Beautiful, too, is the spire at Louth, Lincoln-
shire ; and Doncaster Church and that of Hedon, locally
known as the "King of Holderness," have fine, massive
towers.

Among steeples rather curious than fine, mention must
of course be made of the " twisted spire " at Chesterfield.
The tower of Cartmel Church, of which the upper section is
placed diagonally within the lower one, is scarcely less
quaint in its way, although less well known.

The rise of tower or spire respectively follows a fashion in
certain districts. Throughout Lincolnshire, for example,
towers are found almost exclusively in the old churches,
except in the neighbourhood of Stamford, where spires
prevail. Cornwall, again, is a county of towers, only a few
ancient churches, such as S. Ewe in West Cornwall, having
spires.

The chief part of the lore and legend of the church tower
connects itself after all with a subject that has not been
touched upon, namely, with the bells, but as the author has
dealt with that somewhat fully elsewhere,* he makes no
pretence of entering here upon so wide a field.

* " A Book About Bells," by the same author. (W. Andrews & Co.,
Hull and London, 1898.)

CHAPTER IV.

FROM the earliest times it was usual, when possible, to
have a garth, or enclosed space, about a church,
although it was not at first used for burials. Instances of
interment within the sacred precincts occur in the fourth
century, and by the sixth the practice had become common.
Cuthbert, who ascended the primatial throne of Canterbury
in 742, has been credited with introducing the use of
churchyards as burial-places into England. One of the laws
of Howel Dha, King of Wales in 943, prescribes the extent
of such an enclosure : " The measure of a burial-ground
is a lawful acre in length, the extremity of which shall touch
the threshold (of the church), and surround it on every side."
Such a limitation of the ground recalls the name referred
to by Longfellow in the lines, —

*' I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls
The burial-ground God*s-Acre ! It is just ;
It consecrates each grave within its walls,
And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust."

The earliest English allusion to this hallowed spot is
in the Excerptions of Egbert, Archbishop of York, issued
about 740, where, under the name of atrium^ it is mentioned
as a garden near the church. The eighty-fifth canon,
issued in 1603, provides for the protection of this ground,
declaring it part of the duty of churchwardens to " take care

THE CHURCHYARD. 53

that the churchyards be well and sufficiently repaired,
fenced, and maintained with walls, rails, or pales, as
have been in each place accustomed."

The planting of churchyards with trees is a custom the
origin of which has often been discussed, especially as
certain trees appear to have been held, time out of mind,
as specially sacred to such use. The yew is before all
others the typical churchyard tree of England, and the
possible reasons for its frequent appearance there are well
summed up by White in his " Antiquities of Selborne,"
in a passage which is worth quoting at length.

" As to the use of these trees, possibly the more
respectable parishioners were buried under their shade
before the improper custom was introduced of burying
within the body of the church, where the living are to
assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse (Gen. xxxv., 8), was
buried under an oak ; the most honourable place of
interment probably next to the cave of Machpelah (Gen.
xxiii., 9), which seems to have been appropriated to the
remains of the patriarchal family alone. The farther use
of the yew-trees might be as a screen to churches, by their
thick foliage, from the* violence of winds ; perhaps also for
the purpose of archery, the best long bows being made
of that material ; and we do not hear that they are planted
in the churchyards of other parts of Europe, where long
bows were not so much in use. They might also be placed
as a shelter to the congregation assembling before the
church doors were opened, and as an emblem of mortality
by their funereal appearance. In the South of England
every churchyard almost has its tree, and some two ; but in
the North, we understand, few are to be found. The idea

54 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

that the yew-tree afforded its branches instead of palms
for the processions on Palm Sunday is a good one, and
deserves attention."

The idea of protecting the fabric of the church by means
of surrounding trees occurs in one of the decrees of the
Synod of Exeter held in 1287, which runs: — "Since trees
are often planted there (in the churchyard) to prevent the
church from being injured by storms, we strictly forbid the
rector to fell them ; unless the chancel shall stand in need
of repair, or unless, when the nave requires to be repaired,
the rector, on account of the poverty of the parishioners,
shall think proper, out of charity, to grant them some of the
trees for that purpose." The law as to the right of the
incumbent to fell timber in his freehold, the churchyard, is
still the same as that here decreed for the western diocese.

There is evidence that the churchyard yews were some-
times used for making long bows, but it is by no means so
certain that they were planted there for that purpose;
although their growth there with that object was encouraged
by Edward IV. about 1470 ; indeed, the fact that the trees
in each churchyard were never numerous, while the number
of bows required at the time when the long bow was the
national weapon must have been very large, coupled with
this other fact that the best wood for bows came from
abroad, seems fatal to the theory. The yew, however, was
unquestionably the usual wood for the manufacture of bows,
and to this, and to the poisonous nature of the leaves,
Shakespeare alludes when he makes Scroop say ("King
Richard II.," Act iii., 2)—

** The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew 5 "

THE CHURCHYARD. 55

and among the accounts of the churchwardens for the
parish of Ashburton, in Devon, we find such entries as
sums received "from lopping off the yew-tree," and
payments "to the Bowyer" in 1558-9. But in the days of
Elizabeth a bow of English yew cost but 2 s., while one of
the "best foreign yew" cost 6s. 8d. Spanish wood was
then, rather strangely, considering the relations of the two
countries at that time, the most highly prized.

That yew was used in the Palm Sunday procession is also
clear; but here again the fact hardly accounts for the
frequency of the presence of the tree near the church, for
its branches were by no means the only substitute for palm
that was employed. In an old sermon for this festival we
find this passage : " For encheson (reason) we have not
olyfe y' bereth grene leves we takon in stede of hit hew &
palmes wyth, & beroth abowte in procession." From this
usage yew came to be called palm in many places. An
entry in the accounts just quoted, under the date 1558-9,
mentions a sum paid " to the Bowyer for cutting out of the
polme tree"; as late as 1709 the churchwardens of S.
Dunstan's, Canterbury, caused a " palm-tree " to be planted
in their churchyard, and the accounts of Woodbury, Devon,
for 1775 refer to "a yew or palm tree planted y« south side
of the Church." But in many places the willow is so
named, especially in the North of England, and church-
wardens' accounts in London frequently allude to the
purchase of that and of box, as well as yew, against Palm
Sunday.

The appropriateness of the yew to a graveyard has been
asserted on the two opposite grounds, that its heavy foliage
has long made it emblematic of death, and that its wonderful

56 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

vitality makes it a type of resurrection and eternal life. Sir
Thomas Browne, in his " Hydriotaphia," speaks of both
ideas : " Whether the planting of yewe in churchyards hold
not its original from ancient funeral rites, or as an emblem
of the resurrection from its perpetual verdure, may," he
allows, "admit conjecture." It is certain that among the
ancients yew shared with cypress the mournful honour of
being used at funereal solemnities, and that the tradition of
such usage reached to our own country, and almost, if not
quite, to our own time. Shakespeare speaks of a " shroud
of white, stuck all with yew " ; and branches of yew were
formerly carried at funerals at Ashill, in Somersetshire. On
the other hand, the life of the tree is extraordinary. At
Fountains Abbey are examples which are supposed to have
attained their full growth in the twelfth century ; and a huge
tree in Darley churchyard, Derbyshire, has been variously
estimated at from 700 to 2,500 years olcj. The tallest
specimen in England is in the churchyard at Harlington,
near Hounslow, and stands sixty feet high.

There are not wanting antiquaries who, with much
reason, consider that the connection between the yew and
consecrated ground stretches back to a time before Palm
Sunday processions or long bows were thought of. Dr.
Rock considers that the alliance has subsisted from the
days of the conversion of our English forefathers ; while
others hold that the presence of a noble tree growing in its
natural beauty was the occasion of the choice of the site for
the church.

Owing perhaps to its close connection with sacred
things, the yew is held to be specially hateful to witches, and
any place sheltered by it is safe from their attacks. In

THE CHURCHYARD. 57

Cornwall, to pluck branches or blooms from any shrubs or
flowers planted in a churchyard is considered unlucky ; and
it is alleged that ghosts from the despoiled ground will
haunt the house of the depredator.

In marked contrast to the sombreness and heaviness of
the yew is the rose with its delicate tints and fragile form ;
but this queen of flowers has also been consecrated to the
service of the burial-ground. At Ockley, in Surrey, it used
to be customary to plant roses upon the graves, especially
for a maiden so to adorn the last resting-place of her lost
lover. In Wales also the pretty custom once obtained of
growing a white rose on the grave of a maiden, and a red one
on that of anyone distinguished especially for benevolence.
The Greeks and Romans adorned their sepulchres with
roses ; and Manning, the historian of Surrey, and others
have seen the survival of classical usage in these British
practices.

At Barnes, in Surrey, died, on December i8th, 1652, one
Edward Rose, who in his testamentary direction for the
adornment of his last resting-place was probably influenced
by the thought of his own surname, rather than by any
recollection of this Greek usage. He bequeathed the sum
of ;^5 for the erection of a wooden partition in the church-
yard at the spot chosen for his grave; and ;^2o to be
expended in the purchase of land, the rent of which was to
be devoted to the relief of the poor of the parish after the
needful sum had been disbursed to plant and maintain
beneath the shelter of this wooden frame three rose-trees.
The rents were, or till lately were, spent in bread; the
rose-trees of the donor have been forgotten.

That same synod of Exeter, above noticed, made a decree

58 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

concerning the grass of the churchyard, the propriety of
which, though it will now be almost everywhere admitted,
was at one time generally denied or ignored in England.
" We decree," say the Exeter fathers, " that if the rectors of
churches, or parish priests, to whom the custody of burial-
grounds chiefly belongs, shall suffer their own or any other
cattle to feed there, they shall be severely punished by their
ordinaries." Until comparatively recently it was quite usual
for sheep to be pastured in God's Acre; and it is still
occasionally done, although every dictate of good-feeling and
reverence is surely against such usage of ground consecrated
both to God and to the memory of the dead. Cows also
were sometimes fed there, and milk from animals living in
such a pasture was considered in the North of England a
sovereign remedy against the ill-effects of being "witch-
ridden."

The belief that churchyards are haunted is natural enough.
If spirits " walk " at all, if anywhere communion is to be held
with the souls of the departed, the burial-ground is obviously
the most likely plape for such ghostly perambulations and
meetings. We are all of us slow to realize, or half-unwilling
to believe, that soul and body actually and entirely part
company, and thus we cling to the fancy that where the
latter lies there the former must delight to linger. Twice in
" A Midsummer Night's Dream " Puck alludes to the
haunting of churchyards. In the closing scene of the play
he sings —

" Now it is the time of night,

That the graves, all gaping wide,
Everyone lets forth his sprite,
In the churchyard paths to glide ; "

THE CHURCHYARD. 59

in the Third Act (Scene 2) he speaks of the morning star,

** Aurora's harbinger,
At whose approach, ghosts wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards."

Hamlet, too, exclaims (Act iii., 2)

** 'Tis now the very witching hour of night.
When churchyards yawn."

According to one tradition it was the rule at one time to
provide each church and churchyard with a ghostly defender
against the spells of witches or their diabolic practices. In
order to do this a dog or a boar was buried alive under one
of the corner-stones of the building, and its apparition kept
off all profane intruders. In case any person buried in the
churchyard is unable to rest, but haunts the place at night,
the ghost may be laid (so at any rate it was supposed in
Staffordshire not very long ago) by cutting a turf, at least
four inches square, from his grave, and laying it under the
altar for four days. Cornwall at one time boasted the
possession of several priests who were famous as ghost-layers,
the Rev. Thomas Flavel being the most noted. His services
were in great demand, and his methods were of a masterful
kind ; for he appears generally to have visited the haunted
churchyard armed with a horse-whip, and to have combined
exorcism with vigorous flogging.

It is no very far cry from ghost-laying to the question of
spells and divination, and churchyard folk-lore provides
several items of information on these matters.

The weird rites of S. Mark's Eve (April 24th) are known
to most people. On this night the wraiths of those who are
to die during the following twelve months pass in grim and
ghostly procession into the church; and he who has the

6o LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

courage to stand in the churchyard, at some spot com-
manding a view of the porch, from eleven that night until
one o'clock the next morning, for three successive years,
shall on the third occasion see the prophetic vision. Such
was the belief, and it still lingers in some places, though it
is not always held necessary to pass a two years* probation
. before the watch is rewarded. There are many stories,
some of them remarkably circumstantial, of this vigil having
been kept with the anticipated result. In some cases the
procession is alleged to be somewhat more formal, the
wraiths of the doomed walking in solemn state around the
churchyard, preceded by the parish clerk. An old man in
the parish of Fishlake, Yorkshire, kept these vigils regularly
at the beginning of the present century. Some years since
Mr. Edward Peacock, the well-known antiquary, communi-
cated to Notes and Queries (vol. iv., p. 470) the
following certified account of one of these vigils, copied
from Holly's " Lincolnshire Notes " : —

" At Axholme, alias Haxey, in y<^ Isle, one Mr. Edward
Vicars (curate to Mr. Wm. Dalby, vicar), together with one
Robert Hallywell, a taylor, intending on St. Marke's even at
night to watch in y<^ church porch to see who should die in
jr* yeare following (to this purpose using divers ceremonies),
they addressing themselves to the busines, Vicars (being
then in his chamber) wished Hallywell to be going before
and he would presently follow him. Vicars fell asleep, and
Hallywell (attending his coming in y« church porch) forth-
with sees certaine shapes psenting themselves to his view,
resemblances (as he thought) of divers of his neighbours,
who he did nominate; and all of them dyed the yeare
following ; and Vicars himselfe (being asleep) his phantome

THE CHURCHYARD. 6 1

was seen of him also, and dyed with y« rest. This sight
made Hallywell so agast that he looks like a Ghoast ever
since. The lord Sheffield (hearing this relation) sent for
Hallywell to receive account of it. The fellow fearing my
Lord would cause him to watch the church porch againe, he
hid himselfe in the Carrs till he was almost starved. The
number of those that died (whose phantasmes Hallywell
saw) was as I take it about fower score.

Tho. Cod, Rector Ecclie de Laceby."

The testator was a native of Haxey, where this took place.
It was commonly supposed that if the watcher himself was
to die, he fell asleep during his vigil, and so would see
nothing ; a case is quoted, however, of an old woman who
spent S. Mark's Eve in the porch of S. Mary's, Scarborough,
and who saw her own figure pass in the ghostly train.
There is a curious story of the apparition of a late rector of
Ford, Northumberland, one Mr. March, being seen by two
casual passers-by on this mysterious night : robed in his
surplice the phantom flitted through the chancel door,
which opened for him to pass, and having reached a certain
point in the churchyard, he vanished. That night the rector
was taken ill, and died the following day, his grave being
dug just where the vision had disappeared.

The same belief is found in the Isle of Man, and is con-
nected with the same night, although it is usually called
LaaH Maghal tosher^ or the Great Feast-day of S. Maghold,
a local saint, whose chief festival coincides with S. Mark's
Day. The superstition is sometimes transferred to Mid-
summer Eve.

James Montgomery has some verses founded on the

62 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

practice here noticed, called "The Vigil of S. Mark," in
which the whole idea is set forth in these lines : —

" * 'Tis now,' replied the village belle,

* S. Mark's mjrsterious eve ;
And all that old traditions tell

I tremblingly believe : —
How when the midnight signal tolls,

Along the churchyard green
A mournful train of sentenced souls

In winding sheets are seen :

The ghosts of all whom Death shall doom ,

Within the coming year.
In pale procession walk the gloom

Amid the silence drear.* "

Tom Hood also, in his " Oddities," has a story, humorous
yet not without its touch of pathos, entitled "S. Mark's
Eve." The most prosaic and practical way of regarding
this weird superstition is that of a Yorkshire sexton, who in
a past generation is said to have kept the vigil regularly,
with a view to forecasting the year's gains in grave-digging !
Weddings, as well as funerals, may be foretold by a visit
to the churchyard at the proper time and in due form. On
Midsummer Eve, the maid who would know who her
husband shall be must go to the churchyard at night ; and
as the clock strikes twelve she must run thrice round the
church repeating, without stopping, these words, or others like
them (for there are various versions) —

** Hemp-seed I sow, — let hemp-seed grow ;

He that will my sweetheart be, come after me and mow."

As she runs she scatters hemp-seed, and if she be bold
enough to look behind her just at the conclusion of her
course, she will see her future husband mowing in her wake.

THE CHURCHYARD. 63

Gay, in his "Thursday, or the Spell," alludes to this
practice ; —

** At eve last midsummer no sleep I sought,
But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought ;
I scattered round the seed on every side,
And three times in a trembling accent cried, —
* This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow.
Who shall my true love be, the crop shall mow.*
I straight look'd back, and, if my eyes speak truth.
With his keen sc)^he, behind me came the youth."

In some places S. Valentine's Eve is said to be the proper
time for this form of divination ; but, however suitable it
may be for love-charms, the 13th February is hardly as
congenial as midsummer for midnight excursions.

Witches have always been credited with a special love for
things ghastly and repulsive, witness the contents of the
witches' cauldron in "Macbeth"; the churchyard, therefore,
naturally forms a perfect arsenal of talismans and charms for
them. " Bones, hairs, nails, and teeth of the dead were the
treasures of old sorcerers," says Sir Thomas Browne.
Among the magic cures for disease and pain, or safeguards
against them, several have been gathered from this source.
A ring made of three nails taken from coffins in three
different churchyards used to be considered in Shropshire
an infallible preventive of rheumatism. In the same county
a woman's front tooth got from a graveyard and carried
in the pocket is supposed to protect a man from toothache,
and similarly a man's tooth will protect a woman. Less
gruesome is a necklace made of small twigs from an elder-
tree growing in the churchyard, as a talisman against
whooping-cough ; this also is found in Shropshire. A
Cornish cure for a swelling in the neck is to go before the

64 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

sunrise of May Day to the grave of the last young man
buried in the churchyard, and to pass the hand thrice from
the head to the foot of the grave and thence to the part
affected. The Devon folk have a cure for boils of a some-
what analogous nature. It consists in walking six times
round a grave newly filled, and crawling thrice across it
on a dark night ; the performer of the ceremony being, not
the sufferer, but some man on behalf of a woman, and
vice versa.

So far the superstitious practices recounted have had as
their object the cure of ailments; there are others more
questionable in purpose. He, for instance, who " maketh
haste to be rich " may gain a large sum of money if he can
tie up a black cat with ninety-nine knots, and, taking it to the
church door, succeed in selling it there to the Devil under
the pretence that it is a hare. Such is a Northumbrian
belief, but one wonders if even a man from " canny New-
castle" could so easily deceive the Prince of Darkness.
Should any desperate and unhappy man or woman desire to
bargain with Satan with a view to gaining the unhallowed
powers of witchcraft, the following (so say the Cornishmen)
is one way of effecting the purpose. One must present one's
self at the altar and receive the Blessed Sacrament ; but
instead of consuming it, conceal it and carry it away. As
the object is blasphemous, we must not be surprised if the
means are sacrilegious. Then at midnight this stolen host
is to be carried thrice around the church, going from south
to north ; and at the third time a huge toad will be met,
standing open-mouthed. The Sacrament is to be given to
this creature, which will then breathe thrice upon the giver,
and the latter will at once become a witch or a warlock-

THE CHURCHYARD. 65

On the other hand, the consecrated soil of a churchyard
is a protection against the power of spells, and in Wales
people have been known to gather some of it and scatter it
upon themselves and their possessions to prevent them
from being " overlooked."

Before leaving this section of our subject, one or two
instances of things lucky and unlucky should be quoted.
And first of all the common unpopularity of the north side
of the churchyard for interments claims notice. The most
casual observer must have been often struck with the fact
that old churchyards frequently have few mounds or
memorial stones upon the northern side, while the southern
one may be already inconveniently crowded. The almost
vacant and less regarded portion which lies almost all day
under the shadow of the church, contains probably a
number of little graves, where still-born and unbaptized
infants lie, but comparatively few others. And this is the
case in country churchyards — in towns the increased value
of land, or the business-like arrangements of cemetery-
boards, has not suffered the interference of much sentiment
— all the country over. White, describing the churchyard
at Selborne, says, " Considering the size of the church, and
the extent of the parish, the churchyard is very scanty ; and
especially as all wish to be buried on the south side, which
is become such a mass of mortality that no person can be
there interred without disturbing or displacing the bones of
his ancestors. ... At the east end are a few graves,
yet none, till very lately, on the north side ; but as two or
three families of best repute have begun to bury in that
quarter, prejudice may wear out by degrees, and their
example be followed by the rest of the neighbourhood."

5

66 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

An account of "The Exemplary Death of Mr. Benjamin
Rhodes, Steward to Thomas, Earl of Elgin " (published in
1657) tells us that "he requested to be interred in the
open churchyard on the north side (to crosse the received
superstition, as he thought, of the constant choice of the
south side) near the new chappel." As an illustration of
the kind of interment which was suffered to take place on
the north side, we may quote the sequel to the murder of
M'Donald by Robert Fitzgerald in Ireland in 1786; "the
body of Mr. Fitzgerald," a contemporary account informs us,
"immediately after execution was carried to the ruins of
Turlagh House. . . . On the next day it was carried
to the churchyard of Turlagh, where he was buried on what
is generally termed the wrong side of the church, in his
clothes without a coffin."

The north was of old mystically supposed to typify the
Devil, and a usage prevailed in some places of opening a
door on that side of the church at the administration of
Holy Baptism, for the exit of the exorcised demon. Milton,
in more than one passage, refers to the JEvil One as holding
sway in the north ; for example, the Divine Father, speaking

of him, says : —

** . . . Such a foe
Is rising, who intends to erect his throne,
Equal to ours, throughout the spacious north."

The same idea is put into the mouth of La Pucelle by
Shakespeare when he makes her (" King Henry VI.," Pt. i,
Act v., 3) invoke the demons, as —

"... Speedy helpers, that are substitutes
Under the lordly monarch of the north."

This fancy probably influenced the choice of grave-spaces ;

THE CHURCHYARD. 6^

and the fact that the south lies for the most part in warmth
and sunlight, while the north is constantly enveloped in cold
shadows, unquestionably gives a more attractive appearance
to the former. Both these considerations perhaps joined to
make the south side the usual position for the main entrance
to a parish church ; and this further affected the question of
burials ; since the graves which lay along the most frequented
path would constantly appeal to the passers-by for their
charitable prayers.

It is considered unlucky for a wedding party to meet a
funeral ; and in some few churchyards, where there are two
or more entrances, the different processions use different
gates. No bridal pair would under any conditions pass
through the lych-gate at Barthomley, in Cheshire; and at
Madeley, in Shropshire, funeral and wedding trains approach
and leave by separate ways. The lych-gate, or corpse-gate,
with its pent-house roof, is specially provided for the shelter
of a funeral while awaiting the priest, but it is only in a few
cases that it is exclusively used for that purpose; it is
frequently, perhaps, where it exists, commonly, the principal
gateway of the churchyard. Several good ancient examples
of the lych-gate are found in Kent, as at Beckenham and
Burnsall. There are now many excellent modern instances
in all parts of the country.

In Shropshire it is thought unlucky for the wedding
carriages to be turned at the church door; so that they
must either return to the house by some route different from
that by which they came, or go some distance past the door
for the purpose of turning elsewhere. A bridal party in the
Isle of Man used to perambulate the church three times
before entering it, according to Waldron's account of the

LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH,

customs of his own day (1726) ; and similarly a funeral at
that date walked thrice around the churchyard cross. There
was a singular custom, surviving well into the present
century, in Shropshire, of decorating the churchyard gate for
a wedding after a unique fashion. It is described in " The
Memorials of a Quiet Life," as taking place at the author's
wedding at Stoke-upon-Tern, in 1829; " all the silver spoons,
tankards, watches, and ornaments of the neighbouring
farmers were fastened on white cloths drawn over hoops, so
as to make a kind of trophy on each side of the church gate,
which is, I understand, a Shropshire custom." There are
instances of this curious, yet not unpleasing, usage in the
county so late as 1840.

The churchyard has not, however, always been reserved
to sacred uses ; our forefathers saw nothing incongruous in
having both traffic and conviviality within its walls, and the
Church had to protest continually against such unseemly
practices. A quotation, given above, from S. Gregory in a
letter of 601, shows how church wakes came to be celebrated
within the sacred garth ; since he recommends that on the
anniversary of the dedication of a church "booths be con-
structed around them " for the celebration of the festival
"with religious joyousness." It was not long, however,
before the religious element began to take a secondary place
in the village wake, and frolic amusement, often harmless
enough in itself, but singularly unsuited to holy ground,
became the foremost feature. The date of the wake was the
Sunday nearest (either before or after) to the feast day of
the church's patron saint ; and all kinds of rural sports, with
dances and jollity, and the usual surroundings of a rural fair,
filled up the day, mass having first been heard. Proiiably,

THE CHURCHYARD. 69

SO far as possible, the rule was observed which obtained in
Wales so late as 1804, of keeping the sports, although within
the churchyard, to the north side of it. Malkin, writing at
that date of the *' Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of
South Wales," says, " The custom of dancing in the church-
yard at their feasts and revels is universal in Radnorshire,
and very common in other parts of the Principality. Indeed,
this solemn abode is rendered a kind of circus for every
sport and exercise. The young men play at fives and tennis
against the wall of the church. It is not, however, to be
understood that they literally dance over the graves of their
progenitors. This amusement takes place on the north side
of the churchyard, where it is the custom not to bury." At
Stoke S. Milborough, Shropshire, these churchyard sports
were only dropped about the year 1820.

The extent to which liberty in this respect ran into license
is best shown by the character of the enactments against it.
A provincial synod in Scotland in 1225 passed several
canons, the sixty-seventh of which orders " that dances or
filthy games which engender lasciviousness be not performed
in churches and churchyards " ; and the seventy-fifth, " that
wrestling matches or sports be not permitted in churches or
churchyards upon any festivals." In 1368 Simon Langham,
Archbishop of Canterbury, issued a mandate against
markets being held on Sunday in the Isle of Sheppey so
near the church as to interrupt the celebration of mass. A
statute (13 Edward I., cap. 6) had already been passed
forbidding the holding of markets and fairs in churchyards.
There are other canons and injunctions which show that the
disorders not infrequently invaded the sacred building itself ;
but none of these efforts of the authorities seem to have

70 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH*

been very eflFectual so far as regards the churchyard. That

enclosure apparently came to be considered the public place

of the parish. Fairs and markets were held there, not at

the wake only, but at other times ; games of all kinds were

played within it, and secular, as well as ecclesiastical, courts

were held therein. Dramatic performances have been

given in the churchyard of S. Chad's, Shrewsbury ; miracle

plays were enacted, as a matter of course, on consecrated

ground in many places. The York Fabric Rolls give

numerous illustrations of the uses to which churchyards

were put of old; in 1416 the parishioners of S. Michael-le-

Belfry, York, complain " that a common market of vendibles

is held in the churchyard on Sundays and holidays, and

divers things, and goods, and rushes, are exposed there for

sale, and horses stand over the bodies of the dead there

buried, and defile the graves, to the great dishonour and

manifest hindrance of divine worship, on account of the

clamour of those who stand about;'' and in 1472 it was

reported that in the parishes of "Helemsay et Stamfordbrig

(Helmsley and Stamfordbridge) all the parishioners there hold

pleas and other temporal meetings in the church and

churchyard." Everywhere the ecclesiastical authorities

evidently strove hard to preserve the sanctity of the place,

but the habit had grown strong by gradual development, and

was consequently deeply rooted before the effort to eradicate

it was made in earnest; and by that time the popular

conscience had become so used to such practises that it was

no longer shocked by them. The playing of games in

churchyards lingered on well into the present century ; a fair

even was held in Pershore churchyard, Worcestershire, down

to 1 838. But the revived church life of the latter half of

THE CHURCHYARD. 7 1

the nineteenth century has succeeded in creating a higher
tone in these matters ; the sacredhess of holy things and
places is becoming more recognized ; and customs such as
these die out. In early days they were largely permitted in
simplicity ; they were suffered to continue through careless-
ness ; we of to-day cannot plead the excuse of the former, it
is well, therefore, that we should throw off the condemnation
of the latter.

A curious custom — one hesitates whether to count it a
game or not — once obtained in several Midland parishes,
under the name of "clipping the church." It existed at
Ellesmere till nearly 1820 ; at Wellington it lasted until about
i860; at Birmingham it was in vogue until about a century
since; and at Edgmond was revived as recently as 1867
with certain modern modifications. The point of the whole
performance consists in a number of people joining hand in
hand, and so completely surrounding the church in this
fashion as to " clip," or embrace, it. In the two first-named
parishes this used to be done by the school children, with a
good deal of tumult and shouting, every Shrove Tuesday.
In its revived form at Edgmond it constitutes part of the
annual " feast " of the parish schools. The charity children
clipped the church in Birmingham. At Bradford-on-Avon,
also, this custom only died out within the last half-century.
The origin of the practice seems to be unknown, but it is
generally supposed to typify an affection for the old parish
church.

Another form of parochial festivity, which sometimes took
place in the churchyard, was the Church-Ale, a method of
procuring funds for charitable works which to us of to-day
seems certainly strange, and to some even reprehensible ;

72 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

yet it appears generally to have been conducted with decency
and propriety. It was, in fact, nothing more than the
" Parish Tea " of a bygone age, an age when tea itself was
unknown, and home-brewed ale was the staple drink of the
English people. The initiative of the Church-Ale was as a
rule taken by the churchwardens. It is thus described by
Philip Stubs, in his "Anatomie of Abuses," published in
1595 : — "In certaine townes where dronken Bacchus beares
swale, against Christmas, Easter, and Whitsondaie, or some
other tyme, the churchwardens of every parishe, with the
consent of the whole parishe, provide half a score or twentie
quarters of mault, whereof some they buy of the churche
stocks, and some is given them of the parishioners them-
selves, every one conferring somewhat according to his
abilitie, whiche maulte being made into very strong ale or
here, is sette to sale either in the churche or some other
place assigned to that purpose. Then when this is set
abroche, well is he that can gete the soonest to it, and
spend the most at it. In this kinde of practice they con-
tinue sixe weekes, a quarter of a yeare, yea, half-a-yeare
together. That money, they say, is to repaire their churches
and chappels with, to buy bookes for service, cuppes for the
celebration of the Sacrament, surplesses for Sir John, and
such other necessaries." In this account we must allow for
a certain amount of exaggeration, for the writer was a Puritan,
who saw in a " May poale " a " stinking idol," and fancied
the whole world was out of course. It is improbable that
the Church- Ale was extended — unless in some very rare
instances — to anything like the length spoken of by Stubs ;
a day or two appears to have been the usual period ; and
the churchyard, in which occasionally a bower was erected

THE CHURCHYARD. 73

for the purpose, was not unusually the place, and not the
church, for gathering the contributions of the people : though
the scene of the feast was often the church-house, a neigh-
bouring barn, or some other entirely secular spot. The
behaviour of the people, also, can hardly have been such as
Stubs hints at, since we find in 1651 as many as seventy-
two parish priests in Somersetshire certifying that during a
Church-Ale, not only was " the service better attended than
on other days " (which perhaps is not surprising), but also
that "the service of God was more solemnly performed."*
There is a passage in Speght's " Glossary to Chaucer," which,
although referring primarily to wakes, has its bearing on the
conduct of the parishioners at such times as these. ** It was
the manner," he says, "in times past .... for
parishioners to meet in their church-houses or churchyards,
and there to have a drinking-fit for the time ; here they used
to end many quarrels between neighbour and neighbour ;
hither came their wives in comely manner." The profits of
these Ales were sometimes considerable, as one example
will show. In 1532 an Ale was held in the village of
Chaddesden for the purpose of helping the building of the
tower of All Saints*, Derby, when a sum of ;^25 8s. 6d.
clear was raised, equal to a very large amount, probably
;^4oo, in modern money. Shakespeare alludes to these
Ales in " Pericles ; " Gower (as Chorus) in the prologue says
that the subject of the play

" . . . halh been sung at festivals
On ember eves, and holy ales."

Rural sports usually accompanied the Church-Ale ; and
it became a general parish festival. It must, however, in the
nature of things have led to incidents regretable, if not

74 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

actually disgraceful, at times ; and we may be thankful
it is a thing of the past : even while we question whether
some of the modern methods of raising money for charities
are not quite as much open to criticism.

We have seen that courts of law were sometimes held
in churchyards ; we shall not be much surprised, therefore,
at finding that the parish stocks commonly stood there.
A usual position was just inside or outside the gate ;
probably for much the same reason as led to the church
door being used for parish notices, — each was a con-
spicuously public place, which every parishioner was
expected to pass. The stocks at Walton-on-the-Hill,
Liverpool, stood against the churchyard wall, and were used
as late as 1857 or 1858 ; at Crowle, in Lincolnshire, they
were within the gate, and in this case also were used within
the last half-century. The market-place was perhaps a more
common situation in towns, but in villages the churchyard
was often the only available open space.

Secularized as the sacred enclosure of God's Acre too
often was in the various ways above mentioned, it had
after all a share in the services of the Church, besides those
solemn rites which especially appertained to it as a grave-
yard. The procession on Palm Sunday wound around it,
and made its first station at the churchyard cross. A
pulpit often stood within it, especially if it was the garth of
a cathedral or other important church, and from this
sermons were frequently preached to the crowd that stood
around. Hereford, Worcester, and Norwich had their
preaching crosses, or open-air pulpits, as well as London,
whose " Paul's Cross " was famous.

Public charities, in the form of doles, were also often

THE CHURCHYARD. 75

distributed within this holy ground. Of these one of the
most curious is the "Biddenden Maids Charity.'* In the
parish of Biddenden, Kent, is a piece of land known as the
"Bread and Cheese Land," from the fact that its rent is
annually spent in those eatables for distribution among the
poor on Easter Day. The charity is said to have been
instituted by two maidens of the names of Mary and Eliza
Chulkhurst, who were born in the year iioo joined together
at hip and shoulder. For thirty-four years, so the story
goes, they lived still united in this unnatural manner, and
their effigies still mark the cakes given away in accordance
with their will. The story is now discredited by antiquaries,
though it was certainly believed in Biddenden for a long
period. The charity is now distributed at the old work-
house, but formerly this was done at the tower door of the
church. A dole consisting of bread, purchased from the
rent of the " White-bread Close " at Barford S. Michael's,
Oxford, used until a few years since to be distributed in a
most disorderly and promiscuous fashion. The loaves were
simply flung to the people, who came in great numbers, not
from that parish only, to be scrambled for in the churchyard.
It is now given in a form and manner more likely to benefit
the poor, than simply to reach the strong. Some seventy
years since the good folk of Madron, Cornwall, witnessed
a curious spectacle, consisting of an act of public penance.
As they came out of church one Sunday, they found a servant
of an old gentleman in the neighbourhood standing beside a
large tombstone, on which loaves of bread were piled. To
each poor parishioner that passed, the man handed a loaf,
saying at the same time, " I, A. B., last week told my master
a lie."

76 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

At Thornton, near Sherbourne, Dorsetshire, there is a
certain tombstone with a hole in it, within which the tenants
of the lord of the manor place five shillings each S. Thomas'
Day. So long as this is done annually before noon the
tenants are free from any demand for the tithe of their hay.

The churchyard at S. Germoe, Cornwall, has a curious
stone structure known as S. Germoe's chair, or King
Germoe's throne. It is variously alleged to have been a
seat used by the royal saint, a chair for the priest officiating
at some outdoor ceremony, and a resting-place for pilgrims
to the founder's tomb. It is possible that it is the mutilated
remains of the shrine of S. Germoe. Another Cornish
legend of a patron saint comes from S. Dennis : it is alleged
here that when the saint suffered decapitation in Paris,
blood fell on the stones of this churchyard, and that the
phenomenon had since been occasionally repeated, as a
warning of impending calamity.

Just as the tower now generally has its clock, so of old
the churchyard usually had its sun-dial ; the measuring of the
flight of time being no small part of the summons to prepare
for eternity. In some cases the dial was placed horizontally
on a pillar upon the south side of the church, at others a
vertical dial was affixed to the external wall of the building,
often just over the main entrance. Not a few churchyard
dials still remain. At S. Anne's, Woodplumpton, is one
dated 1598; another stands near the Cathedral Church of
Manchester; Garstang, Lancashire, has one with the date
1757 ; and in the same county, Hambleton, one dated 1670,
and Heapey, one as late as 1826. The broken shaft of the
old churchyard cross has been, in more than one instance,
used as a pedestal for the dial ; such is the case at Shaw, in

THE CHURCHYARD. 77

Lancashire, and at Crowle, in Lincolnshire. Several of the

«

dials bear well-chosen mottoes. At Goosnargh is one, dated
1 748, inscribed Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis (** Horace,"
Sat. ii., 6) ; at Aldingham we find a longer motto —

** Use the present time ;
Redeem the past ;
For thus uncertainly,
Though imperceptibly.
The night of life approaches.'*

CHAPTER V.

CtAHB Anb :SunerAf6.

" r T E that looks for urns and old sepulchral relicks,"
1 A says Sir Thomas Browne, in his " Hydriotaphia,"
"must not seek them in the ruins of temples, where no religion
anciently placed them. These were found in a field, according
to ancient custom in noble or private burial, the old practice
of the Canaan ites, the family of Abraham, the burying-place
of Joshua in the borders of his possessions ; and also agree-
able unto Roman practice to bury by highways, whereby
their monuments were under eye — memorials of themselves,
and mementoes of mortality unto living passengers, whom
the epitaphs of great ones were fain to beg to stay and look
upon them, — a language though sometimes used, not so
proper in church inscriptions. The sensible rhetoric of the
dead, to examplarity of good life, first admitted the bones
of pious men and martyrs within church walls, which in
succeeding ages crept into promiscuous practice : while
Constantine was peculiarly favoured to be admitted into the
church porch, and the first thus buried in England was in
the days of Cuthred." We have already seen that interment
even in the churchyard was not a primitive practice, but it
came gradually into use about the sixth century. The
Council of Braga, in 563, permits burials around churches,
but forbids them within;. the Council of Nantes, in 660,
with the same prohibition, allows them in the atrium, or

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 79

courtyard, and in all the subsidiary buildings, such as
cloisters. The feeling that interment within the church was
a mark of greater honour than burial in the garth, is illustrated
by the legend of S. Swithin. The monks of Winchester, it
is said, were anxious to translate his venerable relics from
the common burial-ground to the chancel ; but the modesty
of the saint was such that, at his intercession, it rained con-
tinuously for forty days, so as to prevent them from carrying
out their purpose. S. Swithin died in 862, and the feast of
his translation is on July 15th. Whatever foundation (if
any) there is for the story, the body was after all removed,
and that twice; first by Bishop Ethelwold in 971, and again
on the erection of the present cathedral by Bishop Walkelyn
in 1093.

Leaving, however, the purely historical question, let us
turn to our English folk-lore and customs with regard to
interments. And first of all the position of the grave claims
our notice. We have already remarked that the site used
almost always to be on some side of the church other than
the north ; as a matter of fact, the south was the most com-
monly used, and then the east ; the west is often scarcely
more fully occupied than the north. But the direction of
the grave was as much a settled arrangement as its situation.
Guiderius, in Shakespeare's * Cymbeline,' says to his companion,
who is about to dig a grave for the seemingly dead Imogen :

** Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east ;
My father hath a reason tor 't."

This almost certainly means with the head so placed as to
face the east ; according to the direction of Durandus, in
the " De Officio Mortuorum," " everyone ought to be buried
so that, the head being placed at the west, the feet are turned

8o LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

towards the east, in the same position as that in which he
prays." This situation for the burial of a body is very
ancient, and was very widely common, as is well illustrated
by another passage from that store-house of mortuary lore,
Browne's "Hydriotophia*' : "The Persians lay north and south,
the Megarians and Phoenicians placed their heads to the
east ; the Athenians, some think, towards the west, which
Christians still retain. And Bede will have it to be the
posture of our Saviour." One of the " Marprelate " tracts,
" Martin's Month's Mind," published in 1589, says " he would
not be laid east and west (for he ever went against the hair),
but north and south." The Bishop of Ely, in his " Articles
of Inquiry" of 1662, asks, "When graves are digged, are
they made six feet deep (at the least), and east and west?"
Thomas Hearne, the antiquary, who died in 1735, com-
manded his executors to see, by means of a compass, that
his grave lay exactly in that direction.

For this custom there are several reasons given (as there
are for the orientation of a church) besides those suggested
by the Venerable Bede and by Durandus. Thus placed,
facing the sunrise, the dead are, as it were, looking for the
coming of the Great Day, for the rising once more of the
" Sun of Righteousness " ; again there is a prophecy of the
Second Advent (Zechariah xiv., 4) which declares that " His
feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which
is before Jerusalem on the East." In churchyards this
position is still almost universally maintained for the graves ;
in public cemeteries it has, unfortunately, been largely
abandoned.

There is a superstition in many places that it is something
worse than unlucky to be the first corpse buried in a new

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 8l

churchyard ; the Devil, in fact, is supposed to have an un-
questionable claim to the possession of such a body. Ip
Germany and in Scandinavia the enemy is sometimes
outwitted by the interment of a pig or a dog, before any
Christian burial takes place. For a long time the people
were unwilling to use the churchyard of S. John's, Bovey-
Traqey, for this reason ; and only began to do so after a
stranger had been laid to rest therein. The same idea
prevails in the North of England and in Scotland. There
can be little doubt that in this we have a relic of the Pagan
custom alluded to in a former chapter, namely, the oflfering
of an animal, or even of a human, sacrifice at the foundation
of a new building. Cases of the burial of animals in con-
secrated ground are not wholly unknown in England, but it
would be difficult probably to prove their connection with this
weird fancy. In 1849, during some excavations within the
Collegiate Church of Staindrop, Durham, a human skeleton
was exhumed, with that of a dog at his feet. The man was
supposed to have been a Neville, of Raby Castle, and the
hound was probably in this case some special favourite with
its master, killed and buried with him, with more than
questionable good taste.

The practice of placing in the grave specimens of such
things as the dead specially regarded, or most frequently
used, in life, is ancient and widespread ; and not unnatural
amongst those Pagans who looked forward to a future life not
greatly different in its requirements from the present one.
Among Christians its use is less defencible. In the funeral
urns, which formed the text of Sir Thomas Browne's famous
treatise, were found ** substances resembling combs, plates
like boxes, fastened with iron pins, and handsomely

6

Hi I/iRK AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

overwrought like the necks or bridges of musical instruments •
long brass plates overwrought like the handles of neat imple-
ments ; brazen nippers to pull away hair ; and in one a kind of
opal, yet maintaining a bluish colour." Sometimes the idea is
that of making provision for the journey to " that bourn from
which no traveller returns." Thus, somewhat pathetically,
the Esquimaux of Greenland lay a dog's head within the
grave of an infant, that the sagacity of the former may guide
the ignorance of the latter ; so the ancient Greeks provided
their dead with the fare demanded by Charon for the ferry
of the Styx. The Rev. S. Baring-Gould, in his " Curious
Myths of the Middle Ages," quotes an instance known to
himself as occurring in Cleveland, Yorkshire, only two years
before the date of his writing, where a man was buried " with
a candle, a penny, and a bottle of wine in his coffin : the
candle to light him along the road, the penny to pay the
ferry, and the wine to nourish him." These explanations
were given by some rustic attendants at the funeral in
question. The modern Greeks place parboiled wheat in the
graves of their dead ; which they hold to signify in some
way the resurrection.

In the nature of the case the idea of lucky or unlucky days
for funerals could hardly arise, as it has done with other
ceremonies, the date of which lies more within the limits of
choice : yet it is an ominous thing for a parish if a grave
slnnd o|>en on a Sunday, for then, it is believed in
(Uouceslershirc. another death will take place there within a
moiUh» or. as some say, within a week. A somewhat similar
suiH^rsniion exists in Alford, Lincolnshire ; where, if a dead
bodv lie unlniritHl over a Sunday, it is expected that another
k\cM\\ win toUow during the week* In Northumberland

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 83

and Durham it is said that funerals go in triplets ; when one
occurs, two others will quickly follow. Singularly enough
the same idea prevails in Rome, concerning the sacred
college ; the cardinals always die, they say, in threes.

The weather may also have a meaning at a funeral. It is
sometimes alleged that " Blessed are the dead whom the
rain rains on"; but on the other hand, if the sun shines with
special brightness in the face of anyone present at the funeral,
it is to mark him out as the next to fall before the reaper Death.

A strange idea was once held in the West of England, that
the presence of the body of a still-born infant in a grave was
a guarantee of the eternal salvation of whoever else occupied
it. This was the belief within the present century at
Devonport. In Northumberland, at Edmonton, near
London, and elsewhere, it was customary to inter these
infants in the next grave opened for some other person ; but
it does not appear that any special virtue was attached to
their presence. To tread upon the grave of a still-born
child, or of one unbaptized, was supposed by the Border folk
to produce an incurable disease, the "grave-merels.**

At almost all times, and in nearly all lands, it has been
usual to associate flowers with funerals. Their frail and
short-lived beauty forms so obvious a type of the life of
many, and to Christians their annual withering and blooming
again comprise so attractive a picture of the resurrection of
the body, that we can feel no surprise at their use.

The body was often covered, or surrounded on its bier,
with flowers. Friar Laurence (" Romeo and Juliet," Act iv.,
S) says :—

" Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse ; "

84 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

and Queen Katherine (" King Henry VIIL," Act iv., 2)
thus expresses her wishes : —

** When I am dead, good wench,
Let me be used with honour : strew me over
With maiden flowers."

In his description of " the faire and happy milkmaid,'* Sir
Thomas Overbury says, " All her care is that she may die in
the spring-time, to have store of flowers stucke upon her
winding sheet.'* This custom was both more natural and
more striking in days when open biers were more commonly
used than coffins. Waldron, writing of the usages of the
Manxmen in the early part of the eighteenth century, tells
us that " the poor are carried only on a bier, with an old
blanket round them fastened with a skewer." In England,
coffins did not come into universal use till the end of the
seventeenth century. In the terrier of the vicarage of
Caistor, Lincolnshire, for 171 7, is this item: **For every
grave in the churchyard and without coffin, fourpence, if
with coffin, one shilling." The usage of coffinless burial
survived in Ireland until about 18 18 as a traditional family
custom of the Traceys, the Doyles, arid the Dalys, all of
County Wexford. In London, however, biers seem to have
gone out of fashion, at least in some districts, at a much
earlier date ; for the vestry of S. Helen's, Bishopsgate, tuled
in 1564 " that none shall be buryd within the church, unless
the dead corpse be coffined in wood." A parish coffin, for
the general use of the poorer parishioners, was often pro-
vided, and one example still exists at Easingwold, Yorkshire ;
and at Youghal a coffin-shaped recess in the churchyard wall
originally held such a one, when not in use. In these cases,
of course, the body was buried only in its winding sheet.

GRAV£S AND FUNERALS. S$

This comparatively modern use of coffins will account for
a fact that must often have struck the reader, namely, that
whereas a graveyard now fills up with great rapidity, old
burial-grounds served their parishes for many centuries.
When no coffins (much less leaden ones, brick graves, and
other such abominations) were used, the grave spaces were
much more quickly ready for use again. Hence the
difference in the charges at Caistor and elsewhere.

From this not irrelevant digression, we return once more
to the use of flowers. The friends forming the funeral
procession frequently carry foliage or flowers of some kind.
A Frenchman, Mons. Jorevin de Rocheford, describing the
obsequies of a nobleman, as witnessed by himself in England
in 1672, speaks of the pall-bearers, the friends, and even the
priest, carrying each a bough, which they afterwards dropt
upon the coffin. Rosemary was often carried in this way, a
fact to which Gay alludes in his "Pastoral Dirge"; and
Cartwright's " Ordinary " also has the lines : —

** Prithee see they have
A sprig of rosemary, dipp'd in common water,
To smell at as they walk along the streets."

The choice of this plant is explained for us by Ophelia, who
says (" Hamlet,'' Act iv., 5) : —

" There's rosemary, that's for remembrance ; "

k

Drayton, too, in his " Eclogues," tells us how there sent

** ilim rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent
Is that he her should in remembrance have."

In some places now, everlastings are considered the
"correct" blossoms for the occasion, but generally no
special flower has precedence ; the best procurable being
used, with a preference, however, for white ones.

86 LORB AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

^Vhite's " Anliquities of Selborne " says of the church of
that parish, " In the middle aisle there is nothing remark-
able; but I remember when its beams were hung with
garlands in honour of young women of the parish, reputed
to have died virgins ; and recollect to have seen the cleric's
wife cutting, in white paper, the resemblance of gloves, and
ribbons to be twisted in knots and roses, to decorate these
memorials of chastity. In the church of Farringdon, which
is the next parish, many garlands of this sort stiil remain."
White, who died in 1793, at the age of seventy-three years,
seems to imply that the custom of bearing these virgins'
garlands had gone out before his time in his neighbourhood,
though the garlands themselves were still to be seen hanging
in churches. A paper read before the Society of Antiquaries
in June, 1747, spoke of the custom as having been "used
formerly in several parts of this kingdom."

The usage thus alluded to was for some girl, of about the
age of the deceased, to carry a garland before the cofBn of a
maiden; and after the funeral this was suspended in the
church. Most of the notices which we have of these
emblems speak of them as being composed of paper flowers,
adorned with ribbons, and having suspended within them a
pair of imitation white gloves,* upon which was written the
maiden's name. No doubt at first both the flowers and the
gloves were real. A writer in the " Antiquarian Repertory "
thus describes the usual form which these garlands latterly
took : — "The lower rim or circle was a broad hoop of wood,
whereunto was fixed at the sides thereof part of two other

• White gloves
maidenhood ; wilr
sides at what, by a

■ evidently of old considered 10 be emblematic of
the custom of giving a, pair to the judge who pre-
imon figure of speech, is called a maidin assize.

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 87

hoops, crossing each other at the top at right angles, which
formed the upper part, being about one-third longer than
the width : these hoops were wholly covered with artificial
flowers of paper, dyed horn, and silk . . . ; in the
vacancy of the inside from the top hung white paper cut in
form of gloves, whereon was written the deceased's name,
age, etc., together with long slips of various coloured paper
or ribbons ; these were many times intermixed with gilded
or painted empty shells of blown eggs, as further ornaments
. . . while other garlands had only a solitary hour-glass
hanging therein."

There are many references to these garlands, or crowns
as they might be more accurately called, in our poets. Gay
says : —

" To her sweet memory flow'ry garlands strung,
On her now empty seat aloft were hung."

Miss Seward, alluding to Eyam Church, Derbyshire, wrote
in 1792 : —

" Now the low beams with paper garlands hung,
In memory of some village youth or maid,
Draw the soft tear, from thrill'd remembrance sprung ;
How oft my childhood marked that tribute paid ! "

Shakespeare makes the priest say of Ophelia (" Hamlet,'' Act
v., i), "She is allowed her virgin crants," using the German
word for crown. Of these garlands many examples survived
until recent times, and some few are still found hanging in
their original places. Brand, the author of the "Popular
Antiquities," which he wrote about 1795, mentions garlands
seen by himself at Stanhope and at Wolsingham in the
county of Durham. Several churches round Shrewsbury
possessed examples down to about the middle of the present

88 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

century; Shrawardine had several till about 1840, Little
Ness Chapel had one in 1825, and Han wood another till
1856. Astley Abbots, near Bridgenorth, and Acton Burwell
still have (or very recently had) examples ; and the same is
true of Abbott's Ann, Hampshire. Winsterley, Shropshire,
however, has been most mindful of its maidens' memories,
for it has retained no fewer than seven of these crowns.
Derbyshire used to have several of these, some of which are
still preserved in places other than the church. Matlock
formerly had eight of them, Ashford-in-the-Water, near
Bakewell, has (or had) five, and Wingfield, near Alfreton,
one. In some places the garlands were buried, and not hung
in church ; in others they were suspended for twelve months
and then removed ; in those instances where they yet exist
it would seem to have been customary to allow them to
hang until dust or decay necessitated their removal. A
number were taken out of Heanor Church some years since
during a thorough cleaning of the building.

In some parts of Wales sprigs of bay are sprinkled along
the path before the funeral train. The " brethren " of
a friendly society usually carry small pieces of box or other
evergreen, when they follow the remains of one of the
fraternity ; and after the service is concluded, they drop these
emblems of abiding remembrance upon the coffin.

From thus adorning the bier of the dead it was a natural
step to a similar treatment of the grave. " In strewing their
tombs," says Sir Thomas Browne, " the Romans affected
the rose ; the Greeks amaranthus and myrtle ; " the Queen,
standing by the grave of Ophelia (" Hamlet," Act v., i), says —

** Sweets 10 the sweet, farewell !
I hoped thou shooldst have been my Hamlet's wife ;

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 89

I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave."

Shakespeare has other allusions to this practice in " Romeo
and Juliet," " Cymbeline," and " Pericles." Every morning
and evening for many days after his funeral the tomb of
Dr. Donne, in old S. Paul's, was strewn with costly flowers.
There is a tomb in Tonge Church, Staffordshire, to the
memory of a member of the Vernon family, on which
a garland of roses is placed each Midsummer Day. It
is said that this is the relic of an ancient land tenure, by
which Henry de Hugefort held certain lands in Norton and
Shaw by the service of bringing a chaplet of roses to Roger
de la Zouch, lord of the manor, on S. John Baptist's Day ;
and if he were absent from Tonge, the flowers were to
be offered at the shrine of Our Lady in the church. The
shrine having long since disappeared, the custom arose
of placing the wreath on the nearest tomb, which chanced
to be that of the said Vernon. Samuel Pepys, in his Diary,
under date April 26th, 1662, writes, "To Gosport ; and
so rode to Southampton ; in our way ... we observed
a little churchyard, where the graves are accustomed to
be sowed with sage."

The remembrance of the departed, as exhibited in a
decent care for their resting-places, has sensibly increased in
England in recent years. Graves are less frequently found
neglected an^ forgotten, with moss-covered stone and
weed-grown mound ; and churchyards are kept more
reverently and tastefully. Much that made graves and
funerals hideous in the past has happily gone out of fashion ;
the nodding plumes, the mutes with their black staves, the
" weepers " and sashes, these are for the most part gone.

90 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

And in their place the bright beauty of the flowers comes
with its lesson of mortality, not the less searching because
tender and gentle. So far we have gained much on our
forefathers of the last two or three generations, in whqse
days tastelessness reigned supreme in these things. But we
have to guard against the danger — or rather to protest with
all our souls against the already accomplished intrusion, —
of the spirit of vulgarity, which is rampant in our age ;
a spirit which shows itself no less in the ostentatious display
of costly flowers in the funerals of the rich, than in the
tawdry metal frauds that profess to simulate flowers upon
the graves of the poor. Here, if nowhere else, surely the
only good taste is simplicity and truth.

Some days are especially sacred to the adornment of the
graves of the departed. The anniversary of the death
usually brings its tribute of affectionate recollection to tha.
separate mounds ; but Easter Day, with its message of hope,
is generally marked by a special offering laid on many
of them. Whit Sunday is also sometimes similarly observed,
and sixty years ago at Farndop, Cheshire, it was the rule on
this festival to cover the graves with rushes neatly arranged
and with flowers. In South Wales, Palm Sunday is called
Flowering Sunday, from the fact that the graves are adorned
with fresh flowers on that day ; the same custom obtains in
Shropshire. On the Continent, All Souls' Day (November
2nd) finds almost every grave in the cemeteries watched
and tended by some tearful mourner; but though that
solemn day is increasingly regarded in England, devotion
has not yet turned largely in this direction upon its
recurrence.

Other ways of adorning a grave or a tomb, beside the

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 9 1

simple array of flowers, were formerly known. Among these
we must mention the herse^ or hearse ; a wooden structure
consisting of pillars crossed by bars, and surmounted by an
open gabled roof, sconces for candles being provided at
various points of it. This, which the French call a chapelle
ardente^ and we of to-day, adopting the Italian term, a cata-
falquCy was placed over the tomb in the church, and some-
times over the grave in the open churchyard, and kept there
for a longer or shorter period. This hearse was draped in
black, candles were kept burning on it at intervals during
its continuance in use, and sometimes an effigy of the dead
lay beneath it. There are traditions of its use at S. Chad's,
Shrewsbury, and at Lichfield ; and at Tansfield, near Ripon,
one may still be seen over the tomb of Sir Robert Marmion
and his wife. This is of wrought iron with sconces for seven
candles. The hearses of wealthy, and especially of royal
personages, were often very ornate. Queen Mary's hearse
was ornamented with wax angels; Inigo Jones designed
the one used at the funeral of James I., which was covered
with small flags, and included emblematic statues. The
last used in England was that .of Queen Mary II. in 1694.
Over or upon these hearses laudatory verses were often
affixed, and the escutcheons and accoutrements of knights
were hung. The lines of Ben Jonson on the death of the
Countess of Pembroke are well known ; they commence : —

** Underneath this sable herse,
Lies the subject of all verse."

Laertes (" Hamlet," Act iv., 5) speaking of his father's
murder, complains of

** His means of death, his obscure burial, —
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones."

92 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Other ways of adorning the hearse are alluded to in the
following two passages ; Habingdon, in his " Castara," has
the lines

** Lily, rose, and violet
Shall the perfumed hearse beset ; "

and Dryden, in his Marriage d la Mode (Act ii., i) makes
one of his characters say,

" Maidens, when I die,
Upon my hearse white true-love knots should tie."

From the year 1666 to 18 14 it was illegal to clothe any
body for burial in anything not manufactured of wool ; but
the Act enforcing this was disregarded for a considerable
part of that time. The first law on the matter, passed in
the first-named year, proved so ineffective that a second was
enacted in 1678. Under this it was decreed that **Noe corpse
of any person or persons shall be buried in any Shirt, Shift,
Sheete, or Shroud, or any thing whatsoever made or mingled
with Flax, Hempe, Silke, Haire, Gold, or Silver, or any Stuflfe
or thing other than what is made of Sheep's Wooll onely, or
be put in any coffin lined or faced with any sort of Cloath or
Stuflfe or any thing whatsoever that is made of any
Materiall but Sheep's Wooll onely, upon paine of the
forfeiture of five pounds of lawfull money of England."
To ensure obedience to this statute, which was passed in
aid of the woollen manufacture of the country, it was
provided that an affidavit should be made in each case
before a justice of the peace, or some other authorised
person, and that a register of the fact that all had been
done as required should be kept by the parish priest. The
parish registers of that, and the following, century have

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 93

frequent notes in accordance with this law. Thus at
Newburn-on-Tyne we find this entry : —

** 1687, 18. Aug. Cuthbert Longbridge was buried in woollen,
as by a certificate dated 24. Aug. 1687."

Sometimes the raw material was used, as in a case
registered at Lamesley, Durham, where we read,

" 1678. Anne Marley wrapped in sheep's skin, bur."

The lines in which Pope refers to this custom (alluding,
it is generally supposed, to the death of Mr^. Oldfield, the
actress) have been often quoted : —

** Odious ! in woollen ! * twould a saint provoke.
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke) :
No, let the charming chintz, and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face."

The registers also contain notices of instances where, from
neglect, or in the cases of wealthy persons from choice, the
law was ignored and the penalty paid. At Witney, Oxford-
shire, the following entries have been made : " Sent out a
Note that no certificate had been brought to me concerning
Baker's daughter being in Burying Clothes made of Sheeps-
woole only, which Note He delivered to David Flexyn,
Overseer of the Poor"; and again in 1689-90, "Buried ye
honourable Richd Lord Viscount Wenman ; the 31st I sent
a Note to ye Churchwardens that I understood the Body of
sd. Lord Wenman was wrapt up in Burying Cloths not
made of Sheepswool only, and they rec^ two pounds and
ten shillings being the forfeiture to the Poor of the Parish
according to the Woollen Act."

The Act was never so universally obeyed as to establish
a custom ; some families were willing to pay the penalty in
order to wrap their deceased relatives in linen, according to

94 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

the older usage; and gradually the insistence upon con-
formity relaxed, so that long ere the repeal of the statute in
1 8 14 it had practically been in abeyance.

It was sometimes customary to inter the body clothed as
in life. Friar Lawrence (" Romeo and Juliet,*' Act iv., 5)
says of Juliet,

*' As the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church " ;

such is still the usage in France ; and ecclesiastics and the
" religious " have generally been interred in their habits or
vestments.

To " pay. the last mark of respect " to a deceased neigh-
bour (as attendance at his funeral is conventionally termed)
is a duty highly considered, especially in country places.
Of old it was common to send the bellman round to give
public notice, that all who would might be present. At
Barnard Castle, Durham, a funeral in the forenoon used to
be looked upon as a private function, and no one presumed
to attend but those who were specially invited; in the
afternoon, however, it was a different matter, and all who
could, especially the women, made a point of being present.
The concourse of people at a Manx funeral was frequently
very great ; " the people of this Island," says an account of
Man at the end of the eighteenth century, *'(I mean the
country farmers and their good wives, together with many
handicraft people) esteem a funeral attendance as one of
their very first entertainments."

The bearers, who carry the coffin from the church gate
into the church, and again thence to the grave, are chosen
according to the sex and age of the deceased ; men carrying
a man, women a woman, and so forth. White scarves and

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 95

gloves are usually worn by them for a child's funeral ; and
in the case of a young girl, her companions, who perform
this last office for her, often wear white hoods. These old
customs were at one time almost universal, but are now
dying out rapidly in towns. It is to be hoped that the
country will long keep the good old fashion of utilizing the
willing service of friends for this sad rite, rather than the
hired assistance of " undertakers' men."

Both friends and bearers at the stately obsequies of pre-
Reformation days bore torches and tapers ; at the funeral of
Kling Henry V. at Westminster it is said that no less than
1,400 lights were carried ; at *he funeral of^Sir John
Gresham in 1556 there were "four dozen of great staff
torches, and a dozen of great long torches." M. Jorevin de
Rocheford, already quoted, whose account refers to the year
1672, speaks of flambeaux carried at a nobleman's funeral.
In state obsequies this striking custom survived down to the
end of the last century at least. The following is part of a
contemporary account of the ceremonial at the funeral of
George II. at Westminster Abbey in 1760 : " At the entrance
within the church, the Dean and Prebendaries in their copes,
attended by the choir, all having wax tapers in their hands,
are to receive the royal body, and are to fall into the pro-
cession just before the Clarenceux King of Arms, and are so
to proceed singing." It was probably this practice that
suggested the Welsh superstition of the corpse-candle, a
mysterious light that travels along the path which the next
funeral is to take. Sometimes a skull accompanies the light,
sometimes the apparition of the person who is to die carries
it, occasionally the mourners are seen to follow : it passes
into the church, and then hovers above the place where the

96 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

grave will be. One tradition has it that this appearance
was granted to the diocese of S. David, in answer to his
prayer that his people might have evidence of the unseen
world.

An old fancy prevalent in Yorkshire was that the funeral
on coming to the churchyard must on no account go
" against the sun " ; and consequently the procession would
sometimes go right round the church to get to the door,
rather than take the more direct and usual path. Pennant
says that at Skyv'og, in North Wales, the bearers would
bring the corpse into the churchyard by no " other way than
the south gate." Both usages probably have some connec-
tion with the sun-worship of our Celtic forebears.

Pennant, again, in the passage just quoted, alleges that in
that parish the service in the church consisted of the form
of evening prayer followed by the office for the burial of the
dead. This usage seems to have been unique. The
service itself is for the most part singularly free from local
peculiarities in its details, and varies little, beyond the
occasional introduction of hymns in church or at the
grave-side. This is in accordance with ancient custom,
which has employed music in the mortuary offices in almost
all lands. Using Shakespeare's words (" Cymbeline," Act
iv., 2), it seems to follow naturally on the death of man to
" sing him to the ground."

From the church the body is carried feet foremost to its
" long home," an attitude that strikes Sir Thomas Browne
as " consonant to reason, as contrary to the native posture
of man, and his first production into the world"; and
which is thus referred to in an epigram of the time of
James I. : —

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 97

" Nature, which headlong into life did throng us.
With our feet foremost to our grave doth bring us ;
What is less ours than this our borrowed breath ?
We stumble into life, we goe to death."

That impressive detail of the burial ceremony, the
scattering of earth upon the coffin, was formerly performed
by the priest himself. In the first Prayer-book of King
Edward VI., the rubric ran, " Then the priest casting earth
upon the corpse, shall say." In the second book this was
altered to "Then while the earth shall be cast upon the
body by some standing by, the priest shall say ; "^ and so
the words remain in the present book. The earlier rubric
is more in accord with ancient precedent, which receives an
illustration from the words of Shakespeare's Shepherd in
"The Winter's Tale" (Act iv., 3),—

** Some hangman must put on my shroud, and lay me
Where no priest shovels in dust."

There is a north country superstition that if one standing
at a considerable distance from the grave hears the fall
of the earth upon the coffin, it is a sign to him of a death
in his family. Browne, in his " Hydriotaphia," sees in the
threefold throwing of the earth something of a parallel
to the thrice-uttered valediction to the dead among the
ancients.

An idea was prevalent not long ago in Cornwall that
a sore might be cured by passing the hand of a dead body
over it, and then dropping the bandage which wrapped it
into the grave, during the reading of the burial service;
but there is no virtue in the hand of a relative.

The exhumation of a body is held in many places (as in
Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, and in other counties) to
be in the highest degree unlucky for the family of the

7

98 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

deceased. Every effort, it is said, was made to dissuade
King James I. from removing the body of his mother,
Mary Queen of Scots, from her first grave, on the plea that
evil would result from such an act. James's eldest son,
Henry, died soon after, and the subsequent history of
the Stuarts was certainly unhappy enough. To disturb
human remains, even accidentally, is thought in the Isle of
Man to be ominous. When, some years since, alterations
were being made in the interior of the church at Manghold,
some bones were uncovered; and the building was filled
with mysterious murmurings and whisperings ; which, how-
ever, were lulled once more to silence by the reverend haste
with which the bones were again buried.

There are quaint stories told of several grave-stones in
different parts of the country. In Tettenhall churchyard,
Staffordshire, is a worn stone on which is carved a figure
resembling a head and body without limbs. Here, the
local chroniclers relate, lies a woman who persisted in
spinning on Sunday. Having been severely reproved by her
neighbours, she promised to reform, and impiously wished
that, if she broke her promise, "her arms and legs might
drop off." Old habits proved too strong for her ; and one
Sunday she turned again to her wheel, and set it murmuring
through the room, while she spun the twirling threads, —
when lo ! her horrible wish was fulfilled, and she was in a
moment reduced to helplessness. In the cathedral garth at
Durham is the effigy of a man holding a glove in one hand.
This is variously said to represent " Hubbapella," the steward
at the time of the erection of the abbey, whose glove was
nightly filled with money by a miracle, so that he might pay
for the next day's work ; and that of a man who leapt from

GRAVES AND FUNERALS. 99

the tower for a purse of gold, which he is supposed here to
hold. In Wickhampton Church, Norfolk, is the tomb of
Sir W. Gerbrygge and his wife, whose effigies lie upon it as
if in prayer, holding in their hands two oval pieces of stone.
The story here is, that these are two brothers, who, having
quarrelled over the boundaries of their respective lands,
fought until they tore each other's hearts out; and were
then turned to stone with the hearts in their hands, as a
warning to future ages ! All these stories illustrate the
tendency of the rustic mind to explain everything about him
"somehow"; let a stone be never so quaintly carved, or
strangely placed, let it be the despair of antiquaries, and
its inscription be a standing puzzle to the scholar, yet the
local folk will see no difficulty, but will have some legend
ready to hand which will fully account for everything.

The subject of epitaphs is far too great to be treated here.
In their composition, or their selection, every characteristic
of the human mind has been displayed. We have poetry
and bathos, dignified and appropriate sentiment, and foolish,
ill-timed jests, reverent devotion and thoughtless ignorance,
pride, envy, love, malice, — every phase of expression and of
feeling. Let two examples alone suffice, the one remarkable
for its brevity, and the other interesting from its literary
associations. In the cloister at Worcester lies the non-juror
Morris, in whose eyes the nation had departed from the
truth, and wandered into hopeless error both in Church and
State. Over his remains is a nameless slab, inscribed with
but one pathetic word,

** MiSERRIMUS."

In the churchyard at Bowes, in Yorkshire, — a parish within
the district in which Sir Walter Scott lays the action of

J -J

lOO LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

" Rokeby,*' and in which also Charles Dickens discovered
" Dothebo)rs Hall," — is a tombstone commemorating the
unhappy pair whom Mallet has immortalized as " Edwin
and Emma." The stone was erected in 1848 at the cost of
the late Dr. Dinsdale, and bears the following inscription : —

"Roger Wrightson, Jun., and Martha Railton, both of Bowes.
Buried in one grave. He died in a fever, and upon tolling his
passing bell, she cry'd out, My heart is broke, and in a Few hours
expired purely thro* Love. March 15, 17^4-.

Such is the brief and touching record
Contained in the Parish Register of Burials.
It has been handed down
By unvarying tradition that the grave
Was at the West end of the church,
Directly beneath the bells.
The sad history of these true and
Faithful lovers forms the subject of
Mallet's pathetic Ballad of
* Edwin and Emma.' "

CHAPTER VI.

THE idea of likening the Church of Christ to a ship
voyaging across a stormy sea is very ancient, and
perhaps arose from S. Peter's use of the ark of Noah as an
emblem. In his first Epistle (iii., 20-21), he speaks of "the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few,
that is eight, souls were saved by water; the like figure
whereunto baptism doth also now save us " ; and to this
passage there is an obvious allusion in a collect in the
Baptismal Office of the English Church which prays for the
admission of the neophyte " into the ark of Christ's Church."
The transference of the thought to the material building is
a simple act, which early occurred. In the "Apostolical
Constitutions " — a work of debated age, but almost certainly
earlier than the Council of Nicaea in 325 a.d. — the reference
of the figure both to the body of the faithful and to the
place of their worship is found in the same passage. In the
fifty-seventh chapter we read of the bishop as " one that is
commander of a great ship " ; he is bidden to see that the
building " be long . . . and so it will be like a ship,"
and the deacons are to attend him " in close and small girt
garments, for they are like the mariners and managers of the
ship " ; and again, " if anyone be found sitting out of his
place let him be rebuked by the deacon, as a manager of the
foreship."

I02 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

This piece of symbolism has become stereotyped in more
than one language by the use of some term meaning
ship for the larger part of the church, occupied by the laity.
It is thus that we get the word nave^ from the Latin navis.
The use of the emblem has been pushed to an extreme in the
case of the church of Ss. Vincent and Anastasius at Rome,
where the walls are curved like the hull of a vessel ; and at
Payerne, where is a nave of uneven width, typifying, it is
said, a ship beaten by the wave.

Anciently the floors of our churches were often unpaved,
or only paved roughly ; and even where they were covered
with stones or tiles, they were exceedingly cold to the feet,
carpets and matting being almost unknown. The floors of
private houses were strewn with rushes, a custom illustrated
by a manuscript, "History of a moste horrible Murder
comyttyd at Fevershame in Kente," in the days of King
Edward VI. ; wherein we are told that, after the crime, the
miscreants " toke a clowt and wyped where it was blowdy,
and strewyd agayne y« rushes that were shuffled w'*»
strugglinge " ; and, further, the body being subsequently
found in a field, but with rushes " stickynge in his slippars,"
it was concluded that he had been slain within a house.
Very naturally, therefore, this custom was transferred to the
church ; so that Thomas Newton, in his " Herball to the
Bible" (published in 1587), speaks of "Sedge and rushes,
with the which many in the country do use in summer time
to strawe their parlors and churches, as well for cooleness as
for pleasant smell."

The provision of the needful supply of rushes was
accompanied with no little ceremony, and generally took
place at the dedication festival of the church. The

THE NAVE. 103

parishioners went forth in a goodly company to cut the
rushes ; and having done this, piled them on a cart adorned
with ribbons, flowers, and coloured papers cut into patterns.
Accompanied with music and singing, and cheered by the
pealing of bells, the load was brought in triumph to the
church; here the rushes were deposited, and the people
filled up the day with feasting and merriment. In his
Injunctions to the laity of the Province of York, issued
about 1 57 1, Archbishop Grindal orders "That no . . .
minstrels, morrice-dancers, or others, at rush-bearings, or
at any other times, come unreverently into any church, or
chapel, or churchyard." The custom, without (let us hope)
any such irregular accompaniment, has survived to our own
day in some few places, as at Ambleside, and until recently
in several other parishes in the Lake district and other
remote spots.

Churchwardens' accounts frequently allude to this method
of covering the floor. In the parish of S. Mary-at-Hill,
London, the sum of fourpence was paid in 1504 "for 2
Berden Rysshes for the strewing the newe pewes"; at
S. Margaret's, Westminster, is. 5d. was disbursed for rushes
in 1544; and at S. Laurence's, Reading, there is an entry,
dated 1602, "Paid for flowers and rushes for the churche
when the Queen was in town, xxd." Rushes, although
evidently so much the most common as to be the typical
covering for the church floor, were, nevertheless, not the
only things employed for the purpose, local circumstances,
doubtless, often rendering a substitute more easy to procure.
Thus at Norwich we find that pea-straw was sometimes used ;
at Old Weston, Huntingdonshire, a piece of land belongs to
the parish clerk, on condition of its being mown before the

I04 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

local feast in July, and the grass strewn on the church floor ;
grass was also used at Pavenham, Bedfordshire, where the
churchwardens claimed, until the demand was commuted for
a money payment, as much grass as could be cut and carted
away from a certain field between sunrise and sunset.
Sometimes the covering appears to have been varied
according as the season made the cooling or the warming of
the feet of the worshippers desirable; at Deptford, for
example, a sum of money was left to the parish to provide,
among other things, half a load of rushes for the church at
Whitsuntide, and a load of pea-straw at Christmas. This
is not the only bequest of this nature, and occasionally a
land-tenure has taken this form ; a small farm in the Isle of
Man, for instance, being held by this service, the owner
having to supply the neighbouring church with rushes.

Little or no provision was made in early times for seating
the congregation. Sermons did not then fill the large part
of the public service which they afterwards came to do in
some places, and the scriptural lections were short ;
consequently the people were expected to stand or kneel
almost all the time. Occasionally, as at Bottesford, stone
seats were provided running round the pillars, or in the
recesses of the walls ; but these would accommodate so few,
that only the aged and the infirm would be likely to use
them. Nevertheless open benches were sometimes placed
in churches long before the Reformation. At a synod held
at Exeter, in 1287, it was decreed as follows: "We have
heard also that the inhabitants of parishes repeatedly quarrel
about seats in a church, two or more persons laying claim to
one seat, which is a cause of much scandal, and often
produces an interruption in the service ; we decree that no

• *i

THE NAVE. 105

person shall for the future be able to claim any seat as his
own, with the exception of noblemen and the patrons of the
churches ; but that if a person shall first enter a church to
pray there, he may choose whatever place he will/' Coming
down to Reformation times, we find John Bradford, in a
letter dated 1553, speaking of some who so far conformed as
to hear mass, but were accustomed instead of worshipping
to "sit still in their pews." Stubs also, in his " Anatomie
of Abuses" (published in 1585), tells how morris-dancers
sometimes invaded churches during divine service, and that
at their coming the congregation " mount upon the formes
and pewes to see these goodly pageants." There are
examples of ancient carved benches in the churches of
Caxton, Finedon, Nettlecombe, Talland, Lavenham,
Shellesley, Walsh, Long Melford, and Langley Marsh. The
oldest dated instance that we have is at Geddington, where
in the north aisle is a bench on which is carved —

Churchwardens William Thorn.

John Wilkie.
Minister Thomas Jones. 1602.

The bench-ends were often elaborately and handsomely
carved. At Lew Trenchard are several of this kind ; on one
is the figure of S. Michael weighing souls, another has the
portrait of a lady with a jester in cap and bells beneath, and
a third the efiigy of a man, with an embattled gateway
beneath ; others have shields charged with the instruments
of the Passion. Cornwall is especially rich in this form of
decoration. The bench-ends of the county, made usually of
chestnut, are frequently panelled in a design like a traceried
window, and the panels are further enriched with devices.
The emblems of saints are often represented, as the wheel

Io6 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

of S. Catherine at Poughill. Coats-of-arms and designs
typical of various industries probably commemorate thedonors
of the several pieces of work : at Mullion the anvil, bellows,
and other requisites of the blacksmith are found; at Altarnun
a number of sheep and rams ; at Stratton a rudder ; and in
many places initial letters. Launcells has the various
implements suggestive of the events of the first Holy Week ;
the thirty pieces of silver, the ewer, bason, and towel of the
feet-washing, S. Peter^s sword with the ear of Malchus
beside it, and the more usual emblems, lantern, seamless
robe, the cross, the sacred wounds, and so forth. Secular
scenes are also sometimes found; Launcells has hunting
scenes, Altarnun a sword-dance; and birds, beasts, and
fishes are not of infrequent occurrence. At Zennor one of
the bench-ends has the figure of a mermaid, "whereby,"
according to local tradition, " hangs a tale." Many, many
years ago, so they say, a beautiful lady came to the church
at Zennor, and sang so divinely as to enrapture all who
heard ; none saw whence she came, or whither she went, and
although she appeared at intervals for several years, she never
seemed to grow older. One young man, bolder than the
rest, or more enchanted, at last followed her when she left
the church one Sunday ; but he never returned to tell his
tale. Long after this a vessel sailed into Pendower Cove
one Sunday, and cast anchor ; when a lovely mermaid rose
from the water, and politely asked the skipper to shift his
mooring, as his cable barred the entrance to her dwelling.
On the report of this incident reaching Zennor, it was at
once felt that this must be the mysterious stranger who had
beguiled the young man away. And here to this day is
her effigy in the church. At Trull, in Somersetshire, is an

THE NAVE. 107

exceedingly interesting series of bench-ends, representing the
procession to the altar before high mass. We have two
acolytes bearing the cross, and a torch, followed by the three
sacred ministers; all are vested in garments that are
singularly short according to modern ideas, even the
celebrant's alb (beneath which no cassock is visible) reaching
but little below the knee.

It was not until the seventeenth century that pews
became those monstrous and unsightly erections, from which
the past half century has not entirely delivered us. The
growth of the abomination is marked by some of the
visitation enquiries of Wren, Bishop of Hereford, in 1 635 :
" Are all the seats and pews," he asks, " so ordered, that they
which are in them may kneel down in time of prayer, and
have their faces up to the holy table ? '' And again, " Are
there any privy closets or close pews in your church ? Are
any pews so loftily made that they do any way hinder the
prospect of the church or chancel, so that they which be in
them are hidden from the face of the congregation ? "

These questions, taken in connection with the date at
which they were put, indicate the reasons for which the high
pews were formed. The almost interminable sermons which
began to be the fashion among clergy of Puritan leanings
made something more restful than an open bench practically
needful for the hearers ; and the spread of the same
Puritanical opinions among the people helped to raise the
backs and sides of these seats to an absurd height. For
since it was part of the theory of Puritanism that liturgical
offices were of little worth, and that bowing at the Holy
Name, standing at the Gloria Patri^ and other similar
marks of decent behaviour, were all papistical, and therefore

Io8 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

to be abhorred ; it was convenient for such as did not care
to incur the penalties of habitual absence from church, to be
able at least to conceal their irreverence when there. This
is illustrated by a letter from Dr. John Andrewes, rector of
Beaconsfield in the days of Charles I., in which he describes
the ill-behaviour of his parishioners ; and, among other
offences charged against them, he says, " Many sitt at
Divine Service with their Hatts on ; and some lye along in
their Pewes, their heades covered, and even at the Letany
and the Ten Com'^^ and yet Omnia bene. Many do not
kneel at prayers ; nor bow at the Glorious Name of our
Lord Jesus, nor stand up at the Creeds, nor at the Gloria
Patri, and yet Omnia bene,^^ The sarcastic refrain of the
rector is in allusion to the report of his churchwardens, who
at visitations make oath that " all is well."

This, together with the growth of the custom of allocating
pews for the exclusive use of certain persons, led to the
filling of our churches with the ugly and irregular erections,
with which most of us were more or less familiar in our
younger days. The effect of this upon the appearance of a
church is indicated by White in his account of the church at
Selborne. " Nothing," he says, " can be more irregular
than the pews of this church, which are of all dimensions
and heights, being patched up according to the fancy of the
owners; but whoever nicely examines them will find that
the middle aisle had on each side a regular row of benches
of solid oak, with a low back-board to each ; these we should
not hesitate to say are coeval with the present church (about
the time of Henry VIL). . . . The fourth aisle also has
a row of these benches ; but some are decayed through age,
and the rest much disguised by modern alterations."

THE NAVE. 109

In process of time the evil grew to an almost ludicrous
extent in some churches. The pew of a wealthy family
was often allowed to occupy the space that would have
sufficed for a dozen benches, and was furnished more like a
parlour than a place of prayer. So early as the first half of
the sixteenth century, Corbet, who became Bishop of
Norwich in 1632, speaks of pews having " become tabernacles
with rings and curtains, casements, locks and keys, and
cushions"; and he sarcastically suggests that only pillows
and bolsters are needed to complete the furnishing. One or
two examples of the pew of this kind are still left. At
Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicester, is one belonging to the Earl
of Ferrers; it is finely carved and surmounted by large
escutcheons. Wensley Church, Yorkshire, has another, the
property of the Lords of Bolton ; the screen in this case is
said to have been plundered from the Scrope Chantry of
Easby Abbey, near Richmond.

Before leaving the question of pews, mention should be
made of the "Hall dog pew," — the special compartment
provided for the Squire's dogs during service-time. This,
though not universally, was yet frequently, found ; at Aveley,
in Essex, it was used down to the end of the eighteenth
century, and at Northorpe, Lincolnshire, in the early years
of the present one. There are many references in the
writings of past days to the fact that favourite creatures,
dogs and birds especially, were commonly taken to church
by their masters. In Barclay's ** Shippe of Fooles " (pub-
lished in 1509) occur these verses : —

" Into the church there comes another sotte,

Without devotion jetting up and downe,

Or to be seene, and to shew his garded cote ;

no LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Another on his fiste a sparhawke or £awcone
Or else a cokow, so wasting his shoon.
Before the aultar he to and fro doth wander,
With even so great devotion as a gander.

One time the hawkes bells jangleth hye,
Another time they flatter with their wings,
And now the houndes barking strikes the skye,
Nowe sounde their feete, and now the chaynes ringes,
They clap with their handes ; by such manner of things
They make of the church for their hawkes a mewe.
And canell for their dog^es, which they shall after rewe."

In "Historical Notices of the Reign of Charles I.," by
Nehemiah Wallington, are two stories of thunder-storms, at
times when the people were in church. In the one we are
told that, at Widdecombe, Devonshire, on October 21st,
1 638, " a dog near the chancel door was whirled up three
times and fell down dead ; " and in the other, that at S.
Anthony, Cornwall, on Whit Sunday, 1648, the lightning
killed "one dog in the belfry and another at the feet of
one kneeling to receive the cup " at the Eucharist.

The whole question of the propriety and legality of
allowing a section of the parishioners to acquire the
possession of the seats of the church, which is the common
property of all, has often been discussed in recent years;
but happily the need for the discussion grows less year by
year, as pews of the old type, and even benches allotted
to specified persons become more rare. It would be somewhat
beyond our province to devote any space here to such
matters as legal faculties for pews, the churchwardens'
authority in their allotment, and other kindred subjects.

One evil, which is also passing away, but which for a
long time marred or hid the architectural beauties of many
a church, is due to the pew-system. When a few wealthy

THE NAVE. Ill

families occupied the greater part of the floor of the church
with their wide enclosures, it became needful to find room
elsewhere for folk of less importance ; and the gallery, with
its hideous straight front, came into being. Western
galleries sometimes existed before this time, and were
used for the singers, or the minstrels; and in cruciform
churches one of the transepts occasionally had a gallery.
There is an ancient western one at Worsted, in Norfolk,
and they are not uncommon on the Continent; and
Winchester Cathedral and Hexham Abbey have examples
in the transepts. The gallery was of old called sometimes
a loft, and by Bishop Montague of Bath and Wells (1608-
161 6) a scaflbld. A century or more ago, in their desire to
increase the accommodation of their churches without
interfering with the all too ample proportions of the family
pews, the authorities reared galleries with a reckless dis-
regard for the beauty, and sometimes even for the stability
of the buildings. Arches were hidden, windows obscured
or bricked up, columns called upon to bear additional,
perhaps dangerous, weights ; and all that the congregation
in the nave might loll at irreverent ease. Happily this is
now a thing of the past ; with the re-introduction of open
benches, the need for these abominations in most places
has gone, and they are consequently rapidly disappearing.

The separation of the congregation according to sex is a
very ancient arrangement. A rule given in the " Apostolical
Constitutions" runs, "Let the door-keepers stand at the
gate of the men, and the deaconesses at the gate of the
women." S. Cyril, S. Augustine of Hippo, and other early
writers, refer to the practice. Socrates asserts that S.
Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, "always

112 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

behaved submissively in this respect, praying in the women's
part with the women." In S. Chrysostom's days, as appears
from one of his homilies, a wooden partition divided the
men from the women, although he admits that such was not
a primitive custom. Eusebius alleges that the practice of
dividing the sexes is as old as the time of S. Mark ; some
consider it even an inheritance from Jewish usage. The
women's side was commonly the north, the men's the south ;
but in the East the women often sat in galleries above the
men. In art the Blessed Virgin is always placed at the
right hand of her Crucified Son, and S. John at His left ;
thus the figure of the Mother on the rood-screen is on the
north, that of the Apostle on the south. Whether this has
had anything to do with the respective positions of men and
women in church, it would be impossible to say, probably,
with any certainty; but the coincidence is worth noting.
The Prayer-book of 1549 has an allusion to this custom ; in
the office for "The Supper of the Lord and Holy Com-
munion, commonly called the Mass," is a rubric which
orders that "so many as shall be partakers of the holy
communion shall tarry still in the quire, or in some con-
venient place nigh the quire, the men on the one side, and
the women on the other side." This direction was observed
at the cathedrals of Hereford and Durham, so far as the
seating of any of the public within the choir was concerned,
until comparatively recent times. The usage, as a standing
rule of the place, has been revived in many churches.*

The conduct of the congregations of the past would strike
a modern worshipper as very strange in at least one particular.

* Thirty years ago, and probably still, the sexes were always divided
in the ** free seats" of Wesleyan Methodist chapels in Cornwall.

THE NAVE. 113

It was usual apparently at the end of the Middle Ages for
men to keep their hats on their heads in church. In 1556
Cardinal Pole had specially to order the " veiling of bonnets "
at Hereford, even at the Incarnatus in the Nicene Creed ;
and at the funeral of Bishop Cox in Ely Cathedral in 1581
the people sat, " having their bonets on,*' during a sermon.
A sermon preached by the Rev. James Rowlandson at
Southampton, in 1620, alleges that this was a foreign habit :
" How unmannerly," exclaimed the preacher, "are a many
that carry themselves with more lowliness in a Gentleman's
Hall (for there they will uncovfer) than in the House of God !
A French fashion, indeed, but very ill-favoured, though it be
naturalized amongst the most, and grown English even in
our greatest congregations, where the apprentice that stands
bare-headed all the week long in his master's shop, must
needs have his hat on in the church." Archbishop Laud did
his utmost to abolish the irreverent custom, but it lingered
on in places for fully half-a-century more. William III. had
a habit of covering during the sermon, and sometimes even
at the prayers ; but the usage had then so far died out, that
the royal example, instead of leading to a revival of it, caused
much offence. With the Puritans, and especially the early
Quakers, this practice was elevated almost into a principle,
as exhibiting to the full their contempt for all outward
forms and ceremonies.

Custom does not seem to have prescribed any laws for the
dress of the congregation in England, as is the case in some
parts of the Continent; as, for example, in Malta, where,
howsoever gaily the ladies may array themselves at other
times, a studiously grave atjire is assumed for church. In
the Scilly Isles, however, it was usual at the beginning of

8

114 I'ORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

this century for girls to wear white only on Christmas Day ;
and it is a common superstition that one must wear some-
thing new, it matters not what, on Easter Day.

Although, as we have seen, the dogs from the Hall
occasionally had a pew specially set apart for them, such
was not the universal practice; and at any rate dogs of
meaner ownership had to be excluded ; the services of the
dog-whipper were therefore called into play. In the
cathedrals of S. David's and Durham this was a recognized
officer of the foundation, and we find traces of him else-
where. A memorandum of 1585 refers to this official at
Ecclesfield, where he was known as the Dog Noper. The
churchwardens' accounts for Stamford-in-the-Vale, Oxford-
shire, for 1567, have an entry: "To Olyu"^ for whipping
dogges from ye churche xviiij^ " Similarly at Tavistock we
road, ** For whyppyng dogs owt of the churche, iiij^" The
accounts of East Halton, Lincolnshire, have an entry of the
same kind. An endowment for a dog-whipper for Calverley,
in Sliropshire, was made by deed in 1659; and the tenant
of certain lands at Christel, Kent, pays (or as lately as 1842
paid) Ion shillings a year to a man to keep order in church,
his original duties being clearly shown by the fact that the
land is slill called Dog Whipper's Marsh. In the vestry of
Hiislow C^hurch, Derbyshire, the whip used by the local
olVuxT, a short ash stick, with a stout lash three feet long,
is prosorvod ; and at Clynnog Fawr and Llanynys, North
Wales, are kept instruments once used to capture dogs in
the church. They resemble long tongs, of iron, with short
spikes within the extremities, wherewith to get a grip on the
unlucky animals. Tr>*sull, Staffordshire, had a pound per
annum bequeathed to it in 1725 by John Rudge to pay a

THE NAVE. 115

man to drive dogs out of church, and to go round during the
sermon and wake up all sleepers. In a similar spirit the
sum of five shillings per annum was left to the Collegiate
Church of Wolverhampton by Richard Brooke, to secure
the services of a man who should keep all the boys quiet
during divine service. In the Isle of Man part of the
Sumner's duty was to. stand at the chancel door " at the
time of service, to whip and beat all the dogs."

Almost the only links left us now between the corporate
life of our towns and the church, which, by means of the
ancient gilds, were once so closely knit together, are the
official attendances of our civic authorities at church on
important occasions. The mayor, escorted by a more or less
full muster of the aldermen and councillors, is usually
present on the Sunday morning after his formal installation ;
and in the days before the reform of our municipal corpora-
tions, thfe procession made a brave show. At Norwich the
mayor went in state to the cathedral on S. George's Day,
and on the Eve of S. John, on which occasions his retinue
included, beside the members of the council in their gowns,
the city waits, swordsmen, marshals, the city sword-bearer,
the mace-bearer, and the standards, one of blue and gold,
the other of crimson and gold : and before all went the
"Norwich Snap," the famous dragon of the city pageant.
The Lord Mayor of London anciently attended Evensong
at S. Paul's on All Saints' Day, and at Christmas, Epiphany,
and the Purification ; he still makes an official attendance
there and at other important city churches at sundry times
during his year of office ; as, for example, on S. Matthew's
Day, when he is present at the Chapel of Christ's Hospital.
The amount of state which their worships should assume on

f l6 LORE AHD LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

these occasions has more than once led to disagreements
between them and the ecclesiastical authorities ; the point
in dispute usually being the right to carry the civic sword
through the church. This was the case more than once at
Exeter, and also at Chichester ; at Bristol the mayor pat up
a gallery for his own accommodation, which Bishop Thorn-
borough (1603-1617) very properly had pulled down again;
whereupon his worship took himself off in high dudgeon to
S. Mary Redcliffe. The bailiffs, who, before the Municipal
Reform Act of 1835, held sway in many places, had also
their official attendances at the parish church ; at Wem, in
Shropshire, the bailiffs and past-bailiffs went thither in
procession at the great festivals, Christmas, Epiphany,
Easter, and Whit Sunday. Her Majesty's Judges generally
make a state "progress" to church also on the Assize
Sunday, and in some places, notably in Diu'ham, this is
accompanied with no little old-fashioned pomp. *

As we have seen was the case with the churchyard, so ♦
also with the church, there was at one time considerable
liberty taken as to conduct therein ; but a clear distinction
seems to have been made in pre-Reformation days between
the chancel and the nave. The former, usually guarded by
its screen, was kept rigidly for its high and holy purposes ;
the latter was at times the common place for the parishioners
to meet in ; and the liberty thus allowed ran in many cases,
according to the tendency of human nature, into license.
Booths were at one time erected in Ely Cathedral, where
S. Audrey's laces, made of thin silk, were sold.* Bamabe

• From the gaudy, showy, character of these laces sold at S. Ethel-
dreda's, or Audry's, fair wc derive the word tawdry.

1

■

1

1

THE NAVE. 117

Googe, in his ** Popish Kingdom/* speaks of a similar
custom as being common on S. Ulrick's Day (July 4th) :

*' Wheresoever Huldryche hath his place, the people there bring in
Bothe carpes and pykes and mullets fat, his favour here to win ;
Amid the church there sitteth one and to the aultar nie,
That selleth fish and so good cheep that every man may bie."

Nor was the abuse of the House of Prayer confined to its
use as a place of merchandise. Aubrey, writing in 1686,
says it was anciently the custom in Yorkshire, in the
Christmas holidays, to dance in the church after prayers,
crying or singing, " Yole, Vole, Yole." This looks like a
relic of one of those sacred dances once employed in
various places, of which very obvious relics yet survive in
Spain, and in the Spanish- American countries of South
America. In 1637 the parishioners of Clungunford,
Shropshire, presented a petition to Archbishop Laud,
complaining that the parson of the parish declined to allow
them an Easter feast, which had become traditional among
them. They set forth that the old and poor folk of their
scattered parish had been used, for many ages, to be regaled
with bread, cheese, and beer, after evensong on Easter Day,
having first communicated at the celebration of the
Eucharist that morning ; that for some fifty years, in
accordance with the wish of the Archbishop of that day, the
feast had taken place in the parsonage, but that previously
it had been held in the church ; now, however, it was
discontinued altogether. Laud's comment on the petition,
still extant in his own writing, was as follows : ** I shall not
go about to break this custom, so it be done in the
parsonage house, in a neighbourly and decent way, but I
cannot approve of the continuance of it in the church ; and

Il8 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

if I hear it be so done again, I will not fail to call the
offenders into the High Commissioners' Court. June 27th,
1637. ^' Cant." The practice Was not confined to that
one parish ; in the same county, in the parish of Berrington,
a similar feast was held; a document, dated August 22nd,
1639, and signed by Wright, Bishop of Lichfield, attesting
that it had been so accustomed " tyme out of mynd," and
that the " feast was even yet performed in the Church." In
this case also Wright, like Laud, encouraged the continuance
of the usage, but forbade its taking place on holy ground.
Still worse than this was the presence, now and again, of
actual profanity, as when women were found singing ribald
songs in procession within the cathedrals, as Sir Thomas
More complains.

Naturally at the Reformation a good deal of this kind of
indecency took place. The more extreme reformers, for
whom the English Reformation was by no means suffi-
ciently thorough, delighted in showing their contempt for
all that others considered holy. Thus we find Hooper
directing, at his visitation of the diocese of Gloucester in
1552, "that you do move the people committed to your
charge . . . not to talk or walk in the time of sermon,
communion, or common prayers ; . . . that the church-
wardens do not permit any buying, selling, gaming,
outrageous noises, tumult, or any other idle occupying of
youth, in the church, church porch, or churchyard, during
the time of common prayer, sermon, or reading of the
homily."

In partial explanation of these secular usages arising
in earlier times, it should be pointed out that many of our
churches, and even some of the cathedrals, were not

THE NAVE. 119

formally consecrated till long after their erection. In 1237,
Cardinal Otho, acting as papal legate, found it needful to
issue injunctions that all . such should be consecrated
within two years, under pain of interdict. In later times we
can find no excuse except the secularity of the people, and
the carelessness of too many of the clergy. Thus a public
thoroughfare was suffered in several of the cathedrals ; such
was the case at Canterbury, Worcester, Durham, Norwich,
Salisbury, and elsewhere, the market people freely carrying
their wares to the Close, or to any place on that side of the
church, through the cathedral and the cloisters. The most
notorious of these cases was that of S. Paul's, "Paul's
Walk " being for very many years a well-known public
promenade. Complaints were made as early as the time of
Edward III., and again under Richard III., of the resort of
idlers to S. Paul's, and of the use of portions of the precincts
by craftsmen and traders. Under Henry VI 1 1, and
Edward VI. the state of things got so bad, as to call for the
passing of an Act in the reign of Mary to mend matters.
From the terms of the statute it appears that not only were
"beer, bread, fish, flesh, fardels of stuff, etc.," carried
constantly through the cathedral, but a common passage
was even claimed for mules, horses, and cattle generally.
And there was no interruption of this traffic even during
divine service ; " yt is a greate disorder in the churche,"
says a presentment of the time of Elizabeth, under whom
the old evils, if momentarily checked by this Act, had
assumed full sway, "that porters, butchers, and water-
bearers, and who not, be suffered (in special tyme of service)
to carrye and recarrye whatsoever, no man withstandinge
them or gainsaying them."

I20 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

In his play " Every Man out of his Humour," Ben
. Jonson lays several scenes in S. Paul's, where a great variety of
characters meet and walk and talk. Shakespeare also has
an allusion to the practices here referred to ; he makes Sir
John Falstaflf say of Bardolph, "I bought him in Paul's,
and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield." Servants were
hired here, lawyers met their clients, and the young gallants
lounged and chatted about the place. In the words of
Corbet, Bishop of Norwich (163 2- 1635), i^ ^^^ —

** The walke.
Where all our Brittaine sinners sweare and talk."

These most objectionable practices were revived to some
extent in the new S. Paul's, as is evident from the fact
that another Act was passed in the reign of William and
Mary against such offences, inflicting a penalty of twenty
pounds upon the disorderly frequenters of the Church.

On one of the pillars of old S. Paul's was carved the foot of
one Algar, a prebendary of the cathedral, and this served as
a standard measure of land. A parallel to this may be
quoted from Somersetshire. There was formerly kept in
Puxton Church the chain by which certain common lands,
called the East and West Dole Moors, were measured for
allotment; this measure was four yards less than the
regular land-measuring chain, and was annually tested on
the Saturday after Midsummer Day, by stretching it from
the foot of the chancel arch to the foot of the tower arch,
at each of which places marks were cut for it.

A curious story of the experience of a congregation at
Wells Cathedral is told by Isaac Casaubon. **This day,"
he says, "the Lord Bishop of Ely (Dr. L. Andrewes), a
prelate of great piety and holiness, related to me a wonderful

THE NAVE. 121

thing. He said he had received the account from many
hands, but chiefly from the Lord Bishop of Wells lately
dead (Dr. J. Still), who was succeeded by the Lord
Montacute ; that in the city of Wells about fifteen years ago
(1596), one summer's day, when the people were at divine
service in the cathedral church, they heard, as it thundered,
two or three claps above measure dreadful, so that the whole
congregation, affected alike, threw themselves on their knees
at this terrifying sound. It appeared the lightning fell at the
same time, but without harm to any one ; so far, then, there
was nothing but what was common in like cases. The
wonderful part was this, which afterwards was taken notice
of by many, that the marks of a cross were found to be
imprinted on the bodies of those who were then at divine
service in the cathedral." The bishop himself found the
mark upon him, and others were signed "on the shoulder,
the breast, the back, and other parts." "This account,"
Casaubon adds, " that great man, my lord of Ely, gave me
in such a manner as forbade me even to doubt of its truth."
Very different from the stories of frivolity and irreverence
among the people, are those scenes witnessed within the
naves of our churches when sinners have been put to
open penance ; and the accounts of some of these are
exceedingly curious. It was anciently a rule at Exeter that
any Vicar-Choral who showed disrespect to the Dean should
stand during the offices of the canonical hours, for one day
and night, outside the choir in the nave, immediately before
the rood; but even penance did not invariably imply
repentance, as was proved when a young monk at Durham,
Robert de Stichill by name, seized the stool on which he had
been compelled to sit in the midst of the choir one Sunday,

122 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

and hurled it into the nave among the congregation. We
may hope, however, that the discipline, which, beyond
question, followed this exhibition of temper, produced its
proper effect, for in 1260 the same Robert became Bishop
of Durham and Abbot of the monastery.

The practice of divination in some of its many forms led

very frec}uently to a public abjuration and penance.

Amongst the notes in the private book of Dr. Swift, who was

Vicar ( General and Ofificial Principal for the Diocese of

Durham from 1561 to 1577, is one that refers to such a

case ; "A confession to be made by AUice Swan, wife of

Robert Swan, in S. Nicole's Church at Newcastle, for

turning the ridle and shears with certen others, after the

minister upon Sonday after the sermon." The special

method of divination employed by Dame Allice with

her sieve and shears (or scissors) was one similar to the

more familiar way of discovering some person's name by

means of a key and a Bible. There are frequent allusions

to the exercise of this discipline in the ecclesiastical records

of the Isle of Man. At Kirk Michael, in 1712, Alice

Knakill, alias Moor, was sentenced to do penance on three

Sundays in the churches of the neighbourhood for using

charms. In 1 7 1 3 also Alice Cowley(the Alices appear to have

been specially superstitious), who professed to h«ive

infallible love philtres, charms for increasing the yieM of

crops, and for other purposes, was sentenced to thirty days'

imprisonment, subsequently to stand at the market cross of

four market towns in Man, dressed in a white sheet, ar>d

bearing a white wand, with the words, " For charming and

•

sorcery " on her breast, and finally to do penance m
Ballaugh Church. In the same church two men and two

THE NAVE. 123

women did penance in white sheets not more than seventy
years ago ; and in Lezayre Church a similar penalty was
exacted of a man in 1825. A severer punishment than
merely exposing oneself to the contemptuous gaze of the
congregation was sometimes inflicted; thus a law of 1655
enacted that, " If any servant hire more than twice (at a
statute hiring) he shall be whipped at the parish church on
Sunday." This law was only repealed in 1876, though long
fallen into desuetude. Bishop Wilson tells us the usual
manner of doing public penance in Man during his time,
which lasted from 1697 to 1755 : "The penitent," he says,
" clothed in a sheet, etc., is brought into the church
immediately before the Litany, and there continues until
the sermon be ended ; after which, and a proper exhortation,
the congregation are desired to pray for him in a form
provided for that purpose." Should one who had done
penance thus relapse, and be again found guilty of any
offence requiring discipline, he was not admitted to it until
he had shown some signs of amendment and contrition ;
and meanwhile he was excluded from the church altogether,
but had to stand at the door during the time of service.

There is a curious entry in the Manx Exchequer Book of
1659 dealing with a case that, though scarcely one of
penance, was very similar. It seems that Mistress Jane
Cesar was accused of witchcraft, was duly tried by a jury,
and was "cleared and acquitted of the accusacon"; the
document then goes on, " Nevertheless that the said Jane
Cesar may declare her innocence of such practizes and that
shee doth renounce the same as diabolicall and wicked, she is
hereby ordered to acknowledge the same before the Con-
gregacon off Kk. Malew Parish on the next Lord's day to the

124 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

end that others may be admonished." This seems hard
measure to mete out to Jane Cesar, after her acquittal by the
jury. In 1638 we read of a very useful piece of discipline
inflicted on slanderers : certain people having accused
Jony Tear of witchcraft, and the charge having been refuted,
the slanderers had to ask Jony's forgiveness "before the
congregation."

There are instances in England of the formal performance
of penance within the present century. A gentleman in the
early years of that period expiated a fault in this way at
S. Mary's, Penzance, walking after the service from the
church to his house in his white sheet.

In spite of all the efforts made from time to time to
prevent the use of charms or the practice of divination, both
continued to be held in some sort of estimation by the
ignorant, who in past days constituted a great majority of
the people ; and the Church and its possessions were made
to serve the purposes of the superstitious. Dust brought
from the floor of the church to the bed of the dying was
supposed to shorten and ease the pangs of a lingering death-
struggle. At Lydford, in Devonshire, it was thought that a
woman suffering from ** breastills," or sore breasts, might be
cured by wearing a heart made of lead cut in small pieces
from the church windows : a form of medicine to which
churchwardens might reasonably object. A somewhat
elaborate cure for epilepsy was once believed in in Cornwall,
the method being as follows : the person afflicted must
stand at the church door and collect from members of the
congregation of the opposite sex thirty pennies ; these must
then be changed for "sacrament money," that is for an
equivalent in silver coins from those presented at the altar

THE NAVE. 125

during the Eucharist; and of this silver a ring must be
made, the wearing of which will effectually cure fits. At
S. Just-in-Penwith within the last twenty years some part of
this charm was tried, the pence being collected and the ring
bought, but the exchange for " sacrament money " was
probably not effected. As dust, lead, stone, and other
things taken from the church were supposed to carry a
blessing with them, so also anything on which a curse had
fallen was freed from it by being carried into the church. In
Wales it was firmly held that if a spell or a curse had been
laid upon a farm or a house, it could be broken by taking
something belonging to it into the church. A charm of
another kind comes from Devonshire ; pluck a rose on
Midsummer Day and put it away, and never look at it
until Christmas Day; if thus treated it will keep perfectly
fresh, and if worn to church on that day the future partner
of your life will come and take the rose.

Somewhat akin to these fancies is much of the quaint
weather lore, in which our ancestors had full confidence.
Among other items of this kind it was thought very ominous
for rain to fall before the morning service on Sunday. We
find proverbs to that effect in very distant parts of the
country. In Norfolk it is said,

" Rain afore chu'ch,
Rain all the week
Little or much ;"

while in Fife we find

" If it rains on the Sunday before mess (mass)
It will rain all the week more or less."

The naves of our churches were anciently adorned with
permanent decorations far more frequently than is now the

126 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

case ; paintings and statues at once serving to remove the
bareness of the walls, aud to instruct the worshippers. Over
the chancel arch was usually a doom, or emblematic painting
of the Last Judgment, of which traces still remain in several
English churches. At Lutterworth, in the chapel of the
Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon, at Blyth in Northampton-
shire, and at South Leigh, dooms, more or less damaged by
time and whitewash, still exist; and there is a singularly
interesting one at Wenhaston, in Suffolk. Other paintings
often covered the walls, and made them as full of teaching
as we have at last agreed that our windows may be. Statues
also stood in their niches against the pillars, or beside the
lesser altars. The patron saint of England, S. George, was
represented in many churches in a splendid fashion; an
equestrian figure richly decorated being erected in his
honour. The Puritan, Hollingworth, writing of Manchester
in 1656, says, "In the chappell where morning sermons
were wont to be preached, called St. George his Chappell,
was the statua of St. George on horseback hanged up. His
horse was lately in the sadler's shop. The statues of the
Virgin Mary and St. Dyonise the patron saints were upon the
highest pillars next to the quire. Unto them men did
usually bow at their coming in the Church." Reading had
a famous statue of S. George, which was lavishly decorated.
The Reformers had a most illogical dislike to painting and
sculpture ; admitting, as Hooper does in his " Declaration
of Christ and His Office," that " the art of graving and
painting is the gift of God," they, nevertheless, would
altogether exclude its existence from the House of God.
Even painted windows were to be destroyed, and " if they
will have anything painted," writes Hooper again, to the

THE NAVE. 127

clergy of Gloucester, " let it be either branches, flowers, or
posies (mottoes) taken out of holy scripture " ; he goes on
to order the defacement of all ** images painted upon any of
the walls." Thenceforth, therefore, the only decoration to be
suffered was branches of unmeaning foliage, or texts
unreadable by the larger part of a country congregation at
that time. Happily these narrow views had no authority
beyond that of the individuals who expressed them, although
the eighty-ninth canon of 1604 desires that "chosen
sentences be written upon the walls of the churches and
chapels in places convenient " ; but the destruction which
was commenced under such leadership was carried out with
ruthless logic to its natural conclusions by the Puritans of
the following century. Something has been done in recent
years to repair the loss of the past centuries, but much yet
remains to be done before the interiors of our churches will
bear comparison with the artistic decoration that we at any
rate aim at in our homes.

There was an interesting case, involving the question of
the legality of pictures in churches, decided by the Court of
Arches in 1684. It was proposed to put up at the east end
of Moulton Church, Lincolnshire, paintings of the apostles,
the dedication of the church being in the name of All
Saints ; and a faculty was applied for from the Chancellor of
the diocese. The Surrogate of that official granted the
faculty asked ; the Chancellor himself revoked it, and the
bishop, Dr. Thomas Barlow (" a thorough-paced Calvinist,"
according to Wood) refused his assent. An appeal was
consequently taken to the Court of i\rches, the leading
opponent of the pictures being one Tallent, a clergyman
living in the parish. The case was heard by the Dean,

: AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Sir Richard Lloyd, and the following is an extract from his
judgment. " By the opinion and judgment of all orthodox
divines the painting of the effigies of the hiest apostles in
any church or chapel is not idolatrous or superstitious, but
do serve only for ornament and to put people in remembrance
of the holy lives and conversations of those they represent,
. , And, therefore, since there is no apparent danger
of superstition, the effigies of the holy apostles in the parish
church of Moulton aforesaid may and ought lo continue as
they are now painted ; otherwise it may be of dangerous
consequence, since that under such pretended fears of
superstition and idolatry most of the churches, chapels,
colleges, and other pious and religious places in England
may be in danger of being pulled down and demolished,
and so in all probability the hatred of idolatry would usher
licentious sacrilege." The faculty was accordingly granted,
and the opponents of it condemned in costs.

Not many of our churches have paintings by well-known
artists, though there are exceptions. The celebrated
picture of Christ as the " Light of the World," by Holman
Hunt, is now in Kebie College chapel ; and in the parish
church of Chinnor, Oxfordshire, are effigies of the eleven
faithful Apostles, the four Evangelists, and of our Blessed
Lord, said to be the work of Sir James Thornhili. The
same artist executed paintings within the dome at S. Paul's,
which have now been replaced by the more effective
mosaics. Other cases might be quoted, but we are far
behind the Continent in this respect, where the masterpieces
of the greatest artists have been placed for the most part in
the churches, and not in mere piciure galleries, public or
private.

THE NAVE. 129

One symbol only found full favour with the civil powers
in the days of Henry VIII. as an ornament to the nave of
the church, and that was the royal arms ! By what
authority this incongruous addition to the furniture of a
House of Prayer was first set up is not evident, but it was
introduced during the primacy of Thomas Cranmer. In
September, 1555, the then deposed Archbishop was examined
at Oxford, when Martin, proctor for the Crown, thus ad-
dressed him : " If you mark the devil's language well, it
agreed with your proceedings most truly. For ^ Mitte te
deorsuMy * Cast thyself downward,' said he ; and so taught
you to cast all things downward. Down with the sacrament !
Down with the mass ! Down with the altars ! Down with
the arms of Christ, and up with a lion and a dog !" By the
arms of Christ the rood is meant, and by the lion and the
dog the royal arms, Henry VIII. having employed, amongst
other supporters to the royal shield occasionally assumed,
a golden lion and a white greyhound. The place usually
occupied by these arms was immediately over the chancel
arch, just above where the rood had formerly stood upon
the screen ; the contrast insisted upon by Dr. Martin was
therefore the more striking. Very few of these Erastian
emblems are to be seen now in the churches themselves ;
but preserved, more or less as curiosities, many of them still
exist in belfries or vestries. They were usually repainted
froni time to time ; and any alteration in the arms was then
introduced, so that there are very few really ancient examples
left. The later arms of George III. — those used after 1801,
when the French fleurs de lys were dropped — are perhaps
those most frequently seen. There are, however, older
ones ; at Acaster Malbis is the shield of James II., dated

9

130 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

1683, now in the vestry ; and doubtless there are others as
old, or older. Marr, near Doncaster, has, or recently had,
the shield still over the chancel arch, as also had Castleford.
The more temporary adornment of churches with flowers
and foliage has a very high antiquity. Paulinus, Bishop of
Nola, describing the preparation for keeping a festival,
exclaims :

Spargite flore solum, praetexite limina sertis ;"

Strew ye the floor with flowers, with boughs the threshold weave."

S. Jerome tells us that his friend Nepotian " made flowers
of various kinds, the leaves of trees, and the branches of the
vine contribute to the beauty and decoration of the Church ;"
and he adds words which well express the principle on
which such things and others, which a sour Puritanism is
wont to sneer at, are admirable. " These things," he says,
" are in themselves but trifling ; but a pious mind, devoted
to Christ, is careful of small things, as well as great, and
leaves undone nothing that belongs even to the lowliest
office in the Church."

Stowe's "Survey of London" (1598) gives evidence of
the English custom, when it tells us " that against the feast
of Christmas every man's house, as also their parish churches,
were decked with holme, ivy, bayes, and whatsoever the
season of the year afforded to be green." Barnabe Googe, also,
in his " Papistical Kingdom " (translated from Naogeorgus),
says concerning a dedication festival : —

** From out the steeple high is hangde a cross and banner fayre,
The pavement of the temple strowde with hearbes of pleasant ayre,
The pulpets and the aulters, all that in the church are seene,
And every pewe and pillar grete are deckt with boughes of greene."

Several of these extracts allude to the scattering of flowers

THE NAVE. 131

on the floor as one part of the preparation of a church for
a festival. We are still familiar with the usage as a sign of
joy, from seeing it done occasionally at a wedding, but its
use at Church festivals has quite lapsed, though the writer
has seen it in at least one church, avowedly as a revival of a
pretty mediseval custom.

Christmas time has long been the great occasion of
decoration in English churches, and the usage of holly, ivy,
and box at that season has lasted in an unbroken tradition
through all the days of carelessness and neglect. Of all the
foliage available at that cold time, mistletoe alone seems by
universal agreement to be excluded from the church. It
was the sacred plant of the Druids, which may have made
the Church cautious of using it ; but it was also the plant
which supplied the fatal shaft which slew Baldr the Beauti-
ful, and it may therefore mean that our Saxon forefathers
so far clung to their ancestral myths, that they would not
use the death-symbol of Baldr at the birth of the White
Christ. The secular frivolities connected with the mistletoe
have no doubt had something to do with keeping it out of
Church in more recent times. It is said that there is only
one instance of mistletoe being introduced in the carving of
an English church, and that is on a tomb in Bristol
Cathedral.

The Christmas decorations must be taken down before
Candlemas Day, and if but a single leaf or berry be left in a
pew, some one of those who usually occupy that seat will
die before another Yuletide ; such at least is the belief of
many, and people have been known to send their own
servants to the church to sweep out their pews most
carefully on Candlemas Eve.

132 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Easter is now becoming almost as generally marked by its
decorations as Christmas, and no season provides flowers
more effective for the purpose than a fine spring. Whitsun-
tide has scarcely yet been accorded equal honours, yet it
was specially regarded by our forefathers. It used to be
customary to deck the churches in Shropshire with boughs
of birch at the feast of Pentecost ; and the same method of
garnishing was in vogue in Staffordshire, if we may judge by
some items in the Bilston accounts. In 1691 we read,
"For dressing ye chapel with birch, 6d. ;" in 1697, "For
birch to dress ye chapel at Whitsuntide, 6d. ; " and again in
1702, "For dressing ye chapel, and to Ann Knowles for
birch and a rose, lod." The same tree is a favourite for
Whitsuntide decoration in Germany.

The festival of S. Barnabas the Apostle (June i ith) was
of old observed with special devotion in England, perhaps
owing to its proximity to Midsummer Day. The churches
were dressed for the anniversary with roses, lavender, and
woodrooffe.

A singular custom existed at Ripon on Christmas Day at
one time ; the boys of the choir came to church provided
with baskets full of rosy apples, in each of which was stuck
a sprig of rosemary or box. These were carried round and
offered to the members of the congregation, who were
expected to give some little gratuity, varying usually from
twopence to sixpence, in return.

Before leaving our consideration of the nave, with its uses
and abuses, its disfigurements and decorations, one curious
form of adornment that has been accidentally introduced into
several churches should be mentioned, and that is, the exis-
tence of trees, growing and flourishing, within the building.

THE NAVE. 133

At Ross Church, in the pew rendered memorable by its
regular use by John Kyrle, Pope's "Man of Ross," two
trees may be seen growing. There are other examples,
which, though not standing in the naves of churches, it will
be convenient to mention here. A chestnut-tree grows
from the tomb of Sir Edmund Wylde, in the chancel of
Kempsey Church, near Worcester. Some years ago, a lad
sitting in the chancel was discovered eating chestnuts, and
one in his hand was snatched from him and flung behind
this tomb ; there it has taken root and grown, in spite of
efforts to dislodge it Outside at least two churches trees
have sprung out of the walls; at Castle Morton, near
Tewkesbury, is one growing from the side of the spire, and
at Whaplode, in Lincolnshire, is a birch-tree on the tower.

CHAPTER VII.

t^ piffit anb t^ Eectem.

TWO of the most conspicuous pieces of furniture in the
naves of our churches are the pulpit and the lectern,
yet neither of them is really ancient. They are develop-
ments upon different lines of the amdo, the elevated platform
with a double flight of steps, from which the Epistle and
Gospel were declaimed in the early Church, the acts and
martyrdoms of the saints were read, and sermons were
sometimes delivered. Placed at the entrance of the choir
or chancel, this grew into the loft or gallery which sur-
mounted the mediaeval rood-screen, on which were often
placed desks for the book of the Gospels ; and this gallery
was anciently called the pulpitum. When the custom arose
of reading the lections at the offering of the Eucharist within
the chancel near the altar itself, desks were provided there
for the books, and these lecterns are also known in France
as pulpitres.

In mediaeval England, a pulpit was by no means univer-
sally found as part of the furniture of a church, sermons
often being delivered, especially in country churches (where
the celebrant at mass must frequently have been the preacher
also) from the altar ; and where they existed, they were
usually light movable structures, which could be brought
out when needed, and pushed into some corner out of the
way at other times. It is therefore not surprising that very

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 35

few really ancient examples have survived. At Norwich
Cathedral the pulpit was on wheels, and was run into a side
chapel when not required for use ; and a similar custom
existed at Christ Church, and at S. Patrick's, and Kilkenny,
in Ireland. Hereford still preserves its old movable pulpit ;
and others may be seen at Great S. Mary's, Cambridge, and
at Christ Church, Streatham.

The honour of possessing the oldest wooden pulpit in
England is claimed by Fulbourne, near Cambridge, the
example there dating from 1350 ; at Lutterworth is one
probably almost as old, from which, it is alleged, that
Wiclif preached during his incumbency (137 5 -1384). From
the Jacobean period we have received many fine old
pulpits, several of them dignified with imposing canopies
and sounding-boards. S. John's Church, Leeds, has a very
handsome one, as also has S. Michael's, at S. Albans. The
latter still retains the stand for an hour-glass, which in the
seventeenth century, the era/«r excellence of lengthy sermons,
became a necessary addition to its furniture. S. Alban's,
Wood Street, London, has preserved not only the stand, but
the hour-glass itself. A bracket for this purpose may yet be
seen in several other churches, either on the pulpit, or on a
pillar or a wall near. There were advantages in placing the
hour-glass beyond the preacher's reach, for occasionally, in
the days of Puritan ascendancy, the vigour of the orator, if
not the attention of the hearers, seems to have been almost
inexhaustible ; and there is a story of a preacher who, having
seen the last sands of his monitor run out while yet his
discourse was in full flood, quietly turned it, with the remark
that there was "yet time to have another glass together,"
and so started on another hour.

136 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Of all Strange pieces of ecclesiastical furniture, surely the
" three-decker" was one of the oddest. This preacher's castle
was usually erected in the midst of the church, blocking out
chancel and altar from view, and dwarfing everything else
in the building. Below was the desk wherein sat the parish
clerk, droning responses to the priest, and acting proxy for
the whole congregation. Above this rose the desk of the
parson, where in voluminous surplice and flowing bands, he
read the prayers. On the " upper deck " was the pulpit, to
which the preacher ascended, after first arraying himself
in his black gown. One smiles to think of the smug
satisfaction of that genius who first evolved this precious
arrangement from his inner consciousness ; how compact
the whole structure appeared to him, how eminently con-
venient ! And how successfully, we might add, it strove to
make the House of Prayer appear to be nothing but a
House of Preaching ! Happily this abomination has become
a tradition, and scarcely more ; probably in some obscure
corners of the country an example or two may still be found;
but such as survive are now curiosities indeed.

Pulpits are never mentioned in old inventories of Church
furniture and property, for the reasons already given; in
those of the last century and the early years of this, their
condition, and that of their cushions and the number of the
tassels thereon, seem to have been objects of great solicitude
to archdeacons and other ecclesiastical authorities. Pulpits
were first ordered to be universally provided in the in-
junctions of 1547, but they were specially intended then for
the reading of the lections at the Eucharist. " In the time
of High Mass," writes Cranmer, " he that saith or singeth
the same shall read, or cause to be read, the epistle and

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 37

gospel of that Mass in English, and not in Latin, in the

pulpit, or in such convenient place as the people may hear

the same." In . that same year the churchwardens of S.

Margaret's, Westminster, paid the sum of 2s. " for making of

the stone in the body of the church for the priest to declare

the pistills and gospells." This was, perhaps, a temporary

arrangement, for in 1553, they spent 15s. in providing "a

pulpit, where the curate and the clarke did read the

chapters at service time." The first law which definitely

assigns the pulpit as the place for the sermon, is the

eighty-third canon (1603), which runs as follows: "The

Churchwardens or Questmen, at the common charge of the

Parishioners in every Church, shall provide a comely and

decent Pulpit, to be set in a convenient place within the

same, by the discretion of the Ordinary of the place, if any

question do arise, and to be there seemly kept for the

preaching of God's word."

Much more care was taken to have the people properly
instructed in the faith in the mediaeval Church than is
sometimes supposed. Two of the Excerptions of Egbert,
Archbishop of York, issued in 750, are to the effect that
"on all festivals, and on the Lord's Day, the priest shall
preach the gospel unto the people ; " and that " every priest
shall, with the greatest diligence, instruct the people
committed to his charge in the Lord's Prayer, the Creed,
and the whole of religion." In the reign of Ethelred, and
about the year 994, were promulged Theodulph's Capitula^
one of which runs thus : " We exhort every priest to be
prepared to teach the people by preaching to them the
scriptures, but let him that is ignorant of them at least say
this, * That they should abstain from that which is evil, and

138 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

do that which is good,' and so forth : no priest can excuse
himself from teaching, for every one of you has a tongue by
which he may reclaim some." About three centuries later,
namely in 1281, Archbishop Peckham issued at Lambeth
certain constitutions, which give very explicit instructions
on the question of preaching. "We decree," he says,
"that every priest who presides over the people shall four
times a year publicly expound to the people in the vulgar
tongue, without fantastical subtlety, the fourteen articles of
the faith, the ten commandments of the decalogue, the two
precepts of the gospel, the seven works of mercy, the seven
deadly sins, the seven principal virtues, and the seven
sacraments of grace." This, as a scheme of instruction to
be used fully every quarter, must, every one will admit,
have been amply sufficient to supply sermons for all the
thirteen Sundays. Again in a constitution issued for the
diocese of Sodor in 1350, it is ordered that "all rectors,
vicars, and chaplains, shall on every Sunday and festival,
carefully expound to their parishioners the word of God, the
Catholic faith, and the Apostles' Creed, in the vulgar
tongue." To quote one more instance only, Arundel,
Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1408 gives fresh authority to
the injunctions of his predecessor Peckham, and orders all
priests to counteract the teaching of the Lollards by keeping
to the course of instruction laid down by him.

The practice of writing one's sermons and reading them
from the manuscript arose towards the end of Henry VIIL's
reign. It was a troublous time, in which a man was
exceedingly liable to "be made an offender for a word ; "
some, therefore, preached as little as possible, and others
wrote out what they wished to say, so as to ensure the

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 39

weighing of every expression used. It was to meet such
cases, as well as to supply the needs of those who thought
themselves unable to preach, that the homilies were
written and authorised. The first book, published under
Edward VI., contained a dozen discourses written chiefly
by Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer; the second book
followed in the reign of Elizabeth ; it consists of twenty-one
homilies, most of which were composed by Jewel. Accor-
ding to the canons of 1603, every resident parish priest,
"allowed to be a preacher," must preach "one sermon
every Sunday of the year ; " which strictly ought to be at a
celebration of the Eucharist, since at that service only does
the Prayer-book provide for any sermon. Should the
" beneficed man," however, not be in the happy position of
being ** allowed to be a preacher," he must procure some
one, who is so, to address his people at least once a month,
and on other Sundays he must read a homily.

The publication of homilies for the use of the less learned
clergy was far from being a new expedient. Theodulph's
Capitula assumed, as in the extract already given, that some
priests were unable to preach, and indeed it was but natural
that many even of the clergy should have but little education
at that date. The bishops therefore composed sermons, or
homilies, in the English (or Anglo-Saxon) tongue to assist
such priests as had need of them.

The mediaeval preachers were extremely fond of allegory,
every passage being spiritualized with a fancifulness which
would be irritating to a modern congregation. We have
what is practically a sermon after the manner of the times in
Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," under the name of "The
Parson's Tale." The love of parable and allegory shows

I40 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

itself also in several of the more famous preachers of the
Reformation period, especially in Latimer, whose " Sermons
on the Card," preached at Cambridge in 1529, and " Sermon
of the Plough,*' which was preached " in the shrouds at
Paul's Church in London," in 1548, are full of quaint
conceits of this kind.

In a sermon preached before King Edward VL in April,
1549, Latimer deals largely with the question of preaching,
which, of course,* after the manner of the Reformers, he
greatly extolls. An extract will not be out of place here.
Having referred to our Saviour's sitting in a boat to teach
the people, he goes on : "I would our preachers would
preach sitting or standing, one way or other. It was a
goodly pulpit that our Saviour Christ had gotten Him here,
an old rotten boat, and yet he preached His Father's will,
His Father's message, out of this pulpit. He cared not for
the pulpit, so he might do the people good. . . . And
though it be good to have the pulpit set up in churches, that
the people may resort thither, yet I would not have it so
superstitiously used, but that in a profane place the word of
God might be preached sometimes ; and I would not have
the people offended withal, no more than they be with our
Saviour Christ's preaching out of a boat. And yet to have
pulpits in churches, it is very well done to have them, but
they would be occupied ; for it is a vain thing to have them as
they stand in many churches. I heard of a bishop of England
that went on visitation, and as it was the custom, when the
bishop should come, and be rung into the town, the great bell's
clapper was fallen down, the tyall was broken, so that the
bishop could not be rung into the town. There was a
great matter made of this, and the chief of the parish were

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 14I

much blamed for it in the visitation. The bishop was
somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much
offended. They made their answers and excused themselves
as well as they could. * It was a chance,' said they, * that
the clapper brake, and we could not get it mended by and
by; we must tarry till we can have it done; it shall be
amended as shortly as may be.' Among the other, there
was one wiser than the rest, and he comes me to the
bishop : * Why, my lord,' saith he, * doth your lordship make
so great a matter of the bell that lacketh his clapper ? Here
is a bell,' said he, and pointed to the pulpit, *that hath
lacked a clapper this twenty years. We have a parson that
fetcheth out of this benefice fifty pound every year, but we
never see him.' I warrant you that the bishop was an
unpreaching prelate. He could find fault with the bell that
wanted a clapper to ring him into the town, but he could
not find any fault with the parson that preached not at his
benefice."

Master Latimer had reason himself to find fault at times
that his coming into a parish was not sufficiently regarded
by the people. In the sermon just quoted he relates how
once, when travelling, he sent word to the next town that he
would preach there on the following morning as it was a
holiday (May Day); but on arriving, expecting "a great
company in the church," he found the door locked and no
congregation. " One of the parish comes to me," he goes
on, "and says, *Sir, this is a busy day with us, we cannot
hear you; it is Robin Hood's day: the parish are gone
abroad to gather for Robin Hood ; I pray you let them not.'
I was fain there to give place to Robin Hood ; I thought
my rochet should have been regarded, though I were not ;

142 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

but it would not serve, it was fain to give place to Robin
Hood's men/' It almost seems as though the preacher did
not command as much sympathy in his disappointment,
from the congregation to whom he related it, as he deemed
his due ; for he exclaims, " It is no laughing matter, my
friends, it is a weeping matter ! "

Preachers have sometimes employed artifice to make
their sermons more telling, as in the case of the unlucky
Dr. Shaw, who, preaching in S. Paul's one day in 1483,
prepared a sentence beginning, " Behold this excellent
Prince !" which was to be uttered just as Richard, Duke of
Gloucester, entered. The Duke, however, came a little too
late, and the catch phrase, by its repetition, made the art of
the speech a little too obvious. Preaching in the same
cathedral, Aylmer, Bishop of London from 1577 to 1595,
startled a congregation, whose attention his eloquence had
not succeeded in rivetting, by suddenly producing from
beneath his gown a skull, and holding it up before their
eyes. The stories of aptly chosen texts are endless, and
would form no small volume by themselves. One only
shall be given here, and that more jjarticularly to correct a
commonly related version of it There is a well-known
anecdote of a worthy preacher who delivered a sermon
before King James the First of England and Sixth of
Scotland, from a text which was thus announced, "James
first and sixth, * A double-minded man is unstable in all his
ways.'" It is a pity to spoil a good story, but the verse
quoted is not the sixth of the first chapter of S. James's
Epistle, but the eighth. The real text of the sermon,
provided that that reference was really given, was perhaps as
appropriate, but not so concise ; namely, ** He that wavereth

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 43

is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and
tossed."

There have been several sums of money left specially to
endow the preaching of a sermon, or a course of sermons,
under given circumstances. The best known is that which
gave a foundation to the Bampton Lectures. By the will of
the Rev. John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury, it was ordered
that the authorities of the University of Oxford should, as
trustees of his estates, appoint yearly a Master of Arts of
Oxford or Cambridge to deliver a course of eight divinity
lectures or sermons, at S. Mary's, Oxford, the character of
the subjects being specified in the will. The first was given
in 1780. Another course is known as the Boyle Lectures,
from having been founded by Robert Boyle, a president of
the Royal Society, who died in 169 1. By his will he
established a series of eight lectures in defence of the
Christian faith ; the first of which was delivered by Richard
Bentley in 1692 ; they are now preached at S. Mary-le-Bow,
in Cheapside. The Rev. John Hulse, of Elworth, by a will
dated 1777, ^^^ ^ sum for the foundation of a series of
lectures at Cambridge, which are hence called Hulsean ;
originally they were twenty in number, but they have been
reduced to eight The Donnellan Lectures were established
in 1 794 by a fund bequeathed to Trinity College, Dublin,
by Mrs. Anne Donnellan, and consist of a course of six.
Bishop Warburton also founded an annual lecture, known
from that fact as the Warburtonian, in defence of the
Christian Faith, especially with regard to the fulfilment of
the prophecies of Scripture. The Moyer Lectures no longer
exist These were eight sermons preached annually in S.
Paul's, the subjects being the Holy Trinity and the Divinity

144 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

of Christ, for which Lady Moyer, widow of Sir Samuel
Moyer, Bart, (who died in 1716), bequeathed the sum of
;^2o per annum. The last Moyer lecturer was Dr. Thomas
Morell, in 1773.

There are other similar instances which, if not so
celebrated, have a 'more interesting history. One of these is
the Lion Sermon at S. Katherine Cree. Within the altar
rails of this church is a bust of Sir John Gayer, with these
two passages of Scripture on either side, " The eyes of the
Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto
their prayers," and "The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much ; " while underneath is a brass,
erected in 1888 by descendants of the knight, with a long
inscription which begins as follows : —

" In Memory of

Sir John Gayer, Knt.,

Founder of the * Lion Seimon,* who was descended from

the Old West Country Family of Gayer,

and was born at Plymouth,

and became Sheriff of this City of London in 1635

and Lord Mayor of London in 1647."

A subsequent paragraph informs us that ** He resided
in this parish, and * Dyed in peace in his owne house *
on the 20th of July, 1649." Sir John was a man of
remarkable enterprise for his time, and travelled far in
furtherance of his business as a " Turkey Merchant.*' On
one occasion, while journeying through Arabia with a
caravan of traders, he got towards nightfall separated from
his company, and found himself compelled to spend the
hours of darkness alone in the desert. Falling on his knees,
he made a solemn vow that all the profits of his expedition
should be given to God and the poor, if the hand of Divine

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 45

Providence should bring him back in safety to his home.
While he was praying a lion of magnificent size, with
bristling mane, and eyes aglow, approached him ; its hot
breath passed over him, as the creature sniffed at him, and
he saw its great form, dusky in the dim light, prowling
around and again around him ; then, without harming
a hair of his head, the monarch of the desert stalked off
into the darkness. Sir John spent the remainder of the
night upon his knees ; and in the morning succeeded in
rejoining his companions, and in due time returned home.
In fulfilment of his vow he gave large benefactions to the
poor of his own parish during the rest of his life-time ; and
at his death left ;£^2oo for their relief, on condition that " a
sermon should be occasionally preached in the church
to commemorate his deliverance from the jaws of the lion."

The Fairchild sermon is preached at S. Leonard's,
Shoreditch, at Whitsuntide. It was instituted in accordance
with a bequest of Mr. Thomas Fairchild, a gardener of
Hoxton, who died in 1729, and left by will a sum of money
for an annual sermon on ** The wonderful works of God in
the Creation," or on '* The certainty of the resurrection
of the dead proved by the certain changes of the animal
and vegetable parts of the creation." A Mrs. Hawkins, who
died in 1780, and was buried in S. Helen's, Abingdon,
bequeathed a considerable sum to local charities (together
with ;£^40o for a rather vulgarly showy monument to her-
self), and a further amount for four sermons to be preached
yearly on certain specified days, one being the anniversary
of her own death.

The Skinners' Company gives the sum of two guineas
yearly to the preacher of a special sermon in one of the city

10

146 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

churches, which the company attends in state on the feast of
Corpus Christi, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. This is
interesting especially as a survival of the time when that day
was commonly observed as the annual commemoration of
most of our ancient gilds and confraternities. The brethren
first attended mass, and then had their business meeting ;
the rest of the day being spent in festivity. The election of
the governors of this company still takes place on this day ;
and the nosegays worn or carried by the members are
a relic of the flowers once strewn along the route of the
Corpus Christi procession.

In addition to the appointed public sermon at the
Eucharist, and the " lectures " which have now become
universal at evensong, and, when the Eucharist is not
celebrated, at matins also, sermons were formerly delivered
at weddings, funerals, and on other occasions of solemnity.
In the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. (1549) the following
rubric occurs in the course of the nuptial mass : " Then
shall be said after the gospel a sermon, wherein ordinarily
(so oft as there is any marriage) the office of man and wife
shall be declared according to holy scripture. Or if there
be no sermon, the minister shall read this that followeth : "
the address following being practically the same as that now
found in the office for holy matrimony. Each successive
edition of the Prayer-book has repeated this direction with
only verbal alteration. As a sample of the kind of sermon
sometimes delivered on these occasions, the following quaint
extract from one given by Dr. Hacket in 1607 will prove of
interest, especially as it offers also an explanation of an old
wedding custom. " Ros marinus, the rosemary," says the
doctor, " is for married men ; the which, by name, nature,

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 47

and continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging
to himself. It overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden,
boasting man's rule. It helpeth the braine, strengtheneth
the memorie, and is very medicinable for the head.
Another property of the rosemary is, it affects the heart.
Let the ros marinus, this flower of men, ensigne of your
wisdom, love, and loyaltie, be carried not only in your
hands, but in your heads and hearts."

The question of funeral sermons caused some controversy
among the more extreme Reformers in the sixteenth century ;
not that they had any objection to sermons in themselves at
any time, for indeed that might be said of them which
Hooker says of the people of his day, " They (the primitive
Christians) in the practice of their religion wearied chiefly
their knees and hands, we especially our ears and tongues ;
we are grown ... in this to a kind of intemperancy
which (only sermons excepted) hath almost brought all
other duties of religion out of taste." But so fearful were
these Reformers lest any kind of regard should be paid to the
faithful dead, that they objected even to a discourse at their
funerals as savouring somewhat of " popery."

Archbishop Whitgift writes, in answer to Thomas Cart-
wright, "Wherein have funeral sermons offended you? or
with what face of brass dare you liken them to trentals?
. . . What? is there a more fit time to entreat of the
mortality of man, and shortness of his days, of the vanity of
this world, of the uncertainty of riches, of the resurrection,
of the judgment to come, of eternal life, and of everlasting
death, and of infinite other most necessary points, than that
wherein we have a present example before our eyes?" In
this, as in some other respects, the influence of Geneva lay

148 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

at the back of the captious scrupulosity of the objectors, as
is illustrated by a letter from Rodolph Gualter, of Zurich, to
Cox, Bishop of Ely, under date August 26th, 1573. " Funeral
sermons," he writes, " are not usual among us ; and since
men are naturally inclined to superstitions, and those
especially which are thought to aid the salvation of the
deceased, it is better either to abstain from them altogether,
or so to conduct them as that all may understand that what-
ever takes place upon such occasions is done for the sake of
the living who are present as hearers, and not for the sake of
the departed." Weak and narrow as such a line of argument
is, all will admit that there is some truth in a statement
further down in the same letter, to the effect that on these
occasions the preachers too often " take up almost the whole
of their sermons with the commendations of the departed."

Grindal preached "at the funeral solemnity of the Most
High and Mighty Prince Ferdinandus, the late Emperor of
most famous memory, holden in the Cathedral Church of
S. Paul, in London," on October 3rd, 1564; on which
occasion there was erected in the choir "an hearse richly
garnished." Archbishop Sandys also preached in the same
place at the " Solemnization of the Funeral " of Charles IX.
of France, on May 30th, 1574. It is scarcely needful to
add that both these were what would now be called, in our
much less forcible phrase, " Memorial Services," not strictly
funerals.

In the steward's accounts, preserved at Haddon Hall, are
sundry items of expenditure in connection with the funeral
in 1650 of Mr. John Eyre, one of the household of the Earl
of Rutland, in the chancel of the Savoy ; whereof one is an
entry of ^1 2s. od. paid " to the minister for his sermon."

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 49

In the English Church funeral sermons have dropt very
largely out of use, though ** orations " are still common on
such occasions on the Continent. Curiously enough they
are still popular among those who are most nearly related in
opinion to the Genevan objectors of three centuries since,
the Dissenters. On the whole we could well afford to let
the practice go ; a funeral is of itself a sufficiently harrowing
experience for the mourners without a long appeal to their
lacerated feelings; and too often the address becomes a
mere panegyric, than which nothing can at such a time be
in much worse taste.

Not much that is curious has yet had time to gather about
the Lectern, for it is, in its present use, a modern piece of
church furniture. In pre-Reformation days there were book-
stands, or lecterns, provided in many churches, especially in
large and important ones, for supporting the books of the
Gospels and the Epistles at Mass ; but the ** lessons," or
lections, at the daily offices are in their present form an
outcome of the Reformation, the capUula^ or little chapters,
of the Canonical Hours being short passages of one or two
verses only. The lectern for the Gospels was frequently
made in the form of an eagle, on whose outspread wings the
book was laid ; and from this we have derived the design of
so many of our modern lecterns. Merton College, Oxford,
has an eagle lectern of the fifteenth century, as also has
S. Gregory's, Norwich, the latter example being dated 1496.
Several handsome lecterns dating from the seventeenth
century are in our cathedrals, and in some of our churches.
Winchester, Wells, Lincoln, York, and Canterbury
Cathedrals, and the parish church of Lynn, have brazen
eagles of that date; Salisbury has one dated 17 19; and

150 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Southwell one formerly in Newstead Abbey. The York
eagle was almost the only thing saved, and that with diffi-
culty, from the fire caused in the choir of the minster by
Martin, the madman, in 1829.

Bristol Cathedral had a brazen eagle, presented to it in
1683 by the Rev. George Williamson, sub-dean, the story of
which has some interest. In the year 1802 the Dean and
Chapter, wishing for a sum of money for some decoration of
their cathedral, actually sold this eagle at the price of old
brass in order to obtain it ! A devout citizen, who attended
the cathedral services with commendable regularity, noticed
the absence of the familiar lectern, made a search for it, and
found it lying at a brazier's, where it was (so it is said) about
to be melted down. He rescued it, and offered it to the
cathedral authorities for the small sum at which he had
bought it, on condition that it was replaced and kept in the
choir ; his offer was, however, declined. At last it was
sold by auction, and the notice of the sale is sufficiently
curious for transcription. It was advertised as follows in a
local paper :

THE EAGLE

FROM THE BRISTOL CATHEDRAL.

To be sold by auction

At the Exchange Coffee- Room in this city,

On Thursday, the 2nd of September, 1803, between the

hours of one and two o'clock in the afternoon,

(unless previously disposed of by private contract) .

A BEAUTIFUL

Brazen Spread Eagle

IVith a Ledge at the Tail

standing on a brass pedestal,

supported by four lions, one at each comer.

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 151

This elegant piece of workmanship was sold, last June, by the dean
and chapter of the cathedral church of the Holy and Undivided
Trinity of Bristol, or their agents or servants, as old brass, and weighed
6 cwt. 20 lb., or 692 lb., and has since been purchased, at an advanced
price, by a native of this city, in order to prevent it being broken up,
and to give the inhabitants a chance of buying it.

It was given to the cathedral, in the reign of Charles IL, by one of
the prebendaries, who had been there forty years ; and is supposed, by
the following Latin inscription (which was engraved on the pillar or
pedestal) to have stood in the choir 119 years : —

** Ex Dono Georgij Williamson, S. T. B. Hujus Ecclesiae
Cathedrelis Bristoll : Vice-Decani, 1683."

That is, ** The Gift of George Williamson, Bachelor of Divinity, Sub-
dean of this Cathedral Church of Bristol, 1683."

The whole of the inscription, except the figures 1683, has been taken
oft the pedestal without the consent of the buyer ; which he has since
had re-engraved.

This piece of antiquity, which is of the most exquisite shape, is made
of the best and purest brass, and well worth the attention of ministers
and churchwardens, or any gentleman or lady who would wish to make
a present of it to their parish church ; traders, also, to foreign parts
may find it worth their while to purchase, as a like opportunity may
never offer again.

Such a handsome bird would be, as it has hitherto been, a very great
ornament to the middle aisle of a church. It for many years stood in
the choir of Bristol Cathedral, and upheld with its wings the Sacred
Truths of the Blessed Gospel. The minor-canons formerly read the
lessons on it, and in most cathedrals the custom is kept up to this day.

This superb image is now at King Street Hall, and may be inspected
three days previous to the day of sale.

N.B. — The purchaser offered, previous to an advertisement, to
resell the eagle at the price he paid for it, provided it were
replaced in the choir ; which offer was rejected.

This lectern found its way eventually to the church of S.
Mary-le-Port, in Bristol, where it now is.

Occasionally we find the lectern taking the form of the
" pelican in her piety," instead of the eagle. The gospel
lectern at Durham was of this shape, and the tradition
has been preserved in the modern lectern in the nave,

152 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

which is an exceptionally handsome one. Another such
exists at Wimborne, and there was one formerly at
Waterford.

By the eightieth canon the churchwardens are bound
to provide, for use in church, a Bible "of the largest
volume," at the charge of the parish.

The only quaint custom associated with the lectern is the
one connected with the use of the gad-whip at Caistor,
Lincolnshire, on Palm Sunday. This extraordinary usage is
sufficiently described in a petition presented to the House
of Lords in 1836 by the lord of the manor of Hundon,
near Caistor (Sir Culling Eardley Smith), begging for its
suppression. In this document it is said "that the lord
of the manor of Broughton, near Brigg, yearly, on Palm
Sunday, employs a person to perform the following ceremony
in the parish church of Caistor ; a cart-whip of the fashion
of several centuries since, called a gad-whip, with four pieces
of wyche-elm bound round the stock, and a leather purse
attached to the extremity of the stock, containing thirty
pence, is, during divine service, cracked in the church porch;
and, while the second lesson is reading, is brought into the
church, and held over the reading-desk by the person who
carries it. It is afterwards deposited with the tenant of
Hundon." It was traditionally asserted that this act was
originally a penance for a murder, and that the lord of
Hundon could exact some penalty from the lord of
Broughton if it were omitted. Sir Culling, in his capacity
as the former of these magnates, made every effort to stop so
indecent an interruption to the service, offering to indemnify
any one who should be a loser by its cessation ; but for
some time in vain. At last in 1846 the land was sold,

THE PULPIT AND THE LECTERN. 1 53

which was supposed to be held by this objectionable tenure,
and the practice was allowed to lapse.*

One word may be added in closing this chapter on
another article of furniture usually placed near the pulpit
and the lectern, namely, the Litany-desk. In mediaeval
times a desk, or form, stood in the midst of the choir for the
use of the cantors at mass, and other solemn offices. When
the custom, formerly invariable, of singing the litany in
procession round the church, or through the parish, was
exchanged for the present mode of reciting it kneeling in one
place, this cantors' form was used by the priest, or a desk
was placed where that had previously been. Hence in
cathedrals we find the litany-desk in the midst of the choir.
In parish churches the priest's stall was more commonly
used for that, as well as for the other prayers, until
comparatively recently. The litany-desk is often, but quite
incorrectly, called a faldstool, a term which really means
a folding-chair or stool, used by bishops or other dignitaries
in church. Cosin, when Archdeacon of the East Riding of
Yorkshire, nevertheless calls the litany-desk by this name ;
and Bishop Andrewes had, in his chapel, a " faldistory " for
the saying of the Litany. So that the term in this sense
can claim some authority and antiquity.

* The last gad-whip used is in the possession of Mr. William
Andrews, of Hull.

CHAPTER VIII.

Z^e font.

THE earliest churches of which we have any detailed
account had not fonts within the portion devoted to
public worship. Baptism was at first administered in the
open air, on the banks of streams or rivers ; and when it
became possible to erect spacious buildings for the offices
of the Christian faith, a special chamber, the baptistery, was
prepared for its initial sacrament. This was often a distinct
building of great size ; baptism being publicly administered
only at stated intervals, so that the catechumens were some-
times very numerous. It appears to have been about the
sixth century that the baptistery began to be constructed as
part of the church itself, though it was still outside the main
building, a porch sometimes being used for the purpose.

The laver of regeneration within these baptisteries was
a well or tank, round or cruciform in plan, whose brim
was level with the pavement. Steps were provided upon
the right and left sides by which the catechumen and the
officiant descended and ascended. According to Thomas
Cartwright, the Puritan antagonist of Archbishop Whitgift,
fonts, as we now have them, were "invented by Pope Pius;"
but this can scarcely be correct. They are certainly later
than the time of Pius I., who reigned from the year 142 to
about 157 ; and it is equally clear that they were in use
before the days of Pius II., who did not ascend the papal

THE FONT. 155

throne until 1458. As a matter of fact, the custom of
baptism by affusion, rather than by immersion, began to be
usual in the west about the eighth century ; and with this
came naturally the construction of smaller fonts. At about
the same time, also, the privilege of baptism was conceded
to the larger town churches, having formerly been reserved
to the cathedrals only. Even after this date small village
churches were not provicjed with fonts, baptism being per-
formed, as confirmation now is, at important centres and
at stated seasons, except in cases of necessity ; collegiate
and conventual churches also, having no parish or district
assigned to them, had no need of fonts. These exceptions
explain the terms of a canon of the council of Meaux, held
in 845 ; " Let no priest presume to baptise except in towns
and in baptismal churches^ and at the appointed seasons."
The same phrase occurs in the Constitutions of Archbishop
Edmund of Canterbury, issued as late as 1236 ; " Let there
be a stone baptistery in every baptismal church."

According to Ivo the canonist, who flourished about 1092,
fonts must be of hard non-porous stone ; and the obvious
utility of this substance for the purpose has made its use
practically universal. There are, however, a few interesting
exceptions. Evenechtyd, Denbighshire, has a unique ex-
ample of a wooden font, hewn from a single solid block of
hard timber. At Chobham, Surrey, the outer case is of
oak, but it encloses a leaden basin. Plumstead Magna,
Norfolk, has a font of lead, as also have Walton-on-the-Hill,
Clewer, Wareham, Dorchester, Parham, Tiddenham, and
Frampton-on-Severn, and at Barnetby-le-Wold, Lincolnshire,
is an interesting example of the same metal, which is not
now in use. At S. Mary de Castro, Guernsey, is a small

156 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

font of silver : and on the Continent bronze has been
employed in several instances.

The almost invariable shape of the later mediaeval fonts
is octagonal ; eight being emblematic of renewal, as seven
is of completion. In earlier times the designer allowed
himself a greater latitude. Of our surviving examples of
Norman, or pre-Norman, fonts, the shapes are various. At
S. Martin's, Canterbury, the font is circular, adorned with a
single row of intersecting arches, and three rows of inter-
laced rings : it has no shaft, but is in the form of a truncated
column. Deerhurst has a Saxon font somewhat similar in
outline, but more elaborately carved ; and the same form is
shown in the font at Kirkburn, Yorkshire. Many, however,
* are externally square, though hollowed into a circular bowl
within. Winchester Cathedral has an ancient example of
this type, the sides of which are rudely carved with scenes
from the life of S. Nicholas. Leicestershire has some
interesting square fonts ; as, for instance, at Twyford and at
Ash by Folville. At. S. Peter's, Oxford, is an ancient oval
example ; and at Newington, Kent, we find another placed
" buffet fashion,*' against the wall.

The decorative carvings upon fonts are often elaborate.
The sides are in some instances enriched with traceried
arches, as at Patrington, Yorkshire, whose circular font has
twelve arches sculptured on it, with crocketed pinnacles
between. Figures, in more or less bold relief, are often
carved upon handsome fonts. At Coleshill and at Mitton
we find a crucifix ; at several places, as Lynn, Walsoken,
Nettlecombe, Norwich, Happisburgh, Worsted and Dereham
are the emblems of the seven sacraments ; at Stixwould and
elsewhere are the emblems of the four Evangelists ; at

THE FONT. 157

Huttoft is an exceedingly handsome font, having on the
eight sides of the bowl the Holy Trinity, the Madonna and
Child, and the Apostles in pairs, on the shaft the figures of
eight saints, while the whole rests upon the emblems of the
Evangelists. Graceful, floral, or conventional designs some-
times wreath themselves about the bowl, as in the
Leicestershire examples at Burrough, and at All Saints' and
S. Mary's in the county town. S. Mary's, Stafford, has a
specially curious font, sculptured with numerous uncouth
figures. At Kentchester the font is supposed to be a
section of a Doric column from the Roman station of
Magna Castra; and at Great Toller, Dorset, is a Tudor
bowl, the pedestal of which is a Roman altar. Burnham
Deepdale, and Fincham, in Norfolk, and Melton, in
Suffolk, have fine carved fonts ; and at Cross Canonby,
Cumberland, is one supposed to be of Roman workmanship.
Inscriptions are occasionally added to the other
sculptures. A thirteenth-century font at S. Anthony,
Cornwall, bears the legend, " Ecce, Karissimi, de Deo vero
baptizabuntur Spiritu Sancto ; " at Bradley are the first
words of the three formulae which sponsors were expected
to know, namely, "Pater Noster," "Ave," and "Credo."
The opening words of the Gospel according to S. John,
"In principio," are upon the font at Dunsby. On several
fonts in England, and on some abroad, occurs a curious
inscription in Greek, which reads the same backwards and
forwards. It may be seen at Hingham, Harlow, Dulwich,
Melton Mowbray, Warlingworth, and S. Martin's, Ludgate;
and is as follows :

NI^ONANOMHMAMHMONANO^IN,
that is Nt^ov avofirjfm firj fwvav oxj/iv^ or in English, " Cleanse

158 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

the sin, not the face only." The font at Orford, Suffolk, is
inscribed, " Orate pro animabus John Cokerel et Katerine
uxoris ejus qui istam fontem in honore dei fecerunt fieri ; "
the date of this is approximately fixed by the fact that
Catherine Cokerel died in 1403. At Wilne, in S. Chad's,
is a font dating from Saxon days, upon which it was alleged
that there was a runic inscription ; but after many anti-
quaries had cudgelled their brains to decipher and translate
it, it was found to be no inscription at all ; a stone, having
the figures of a number of men upon it, had been cut in
two and reversed, the supposed runes being merely the
series of legs upside down.

A synod at Durham, in 1220, ordained that fonts should
be furnished with covers and locks, lest the water should be
used for enchantments ; and these covers have in several
cases developed into lofty canopies, or open chambers,
covering the font as the ciborium anciently did the altar.
Good examples of the spire-like font-cover exist at Castle
Acre, at Worsted, and at East Wrethara, in Norfolk;
Hepworth, Suffolk, has a fine one which happily escaped
damage from the fire which recently well-nigh destroyed the
church ; others may be seen in Halifax Parish Church, and
at many other places.

The font presented by Her Majesty the Queen to the
Anglican Collegiate Church of S. George the Martyr, in
Jerusalem, is provided with a handsomely carved cover of
this kind. These covers are usually suspended by chains
from the roof, or from an ornamental bracket in the wall,
and are raised and lowered by a balanced pulley. At York
a dragon-headed beam on the north side of the nave held
the chain of the old font-cover.

THE FONT. 159

The canopy over the font is not so common. Two good
examples are supplied by S. Peter, Mancroft, Norwich, and
Trunch, in the same county. The former of these is
supported by four pillars, which were once gorgeously
coloured, traces of the painting being still visible ; a number
of angels, some of them with long trumpets, stand on the
pinnacles and in niches, and one surmounts the whole
structure, within which hangs the font-cover. The fine
carving of the wood-work suffered severely in the past,
probably from Puritan violence, which was extreme in
Norwich, but the canopy has recently been carefully and
well restored. The canopy at Trunch is hexagonal, and has
also been painted and gilded, and its columns and niches
are finely carved. Another similar erection worthy of
mention is at Luton, in Bedfordshire.

The Puritan Cartwright having alleged that the priest
must go "for baptism unto the church-door," Archbishop
Whitgift replies, in his "Defence," published in 1574, "I
know divers places where it (the font) is in the midst of the
church, some places where it is in the nethermost part, I
know no place where it standeth at the church-door." This
is curious, as it is certain that a position just within the door,
as typifying the catechumen's entrance by baptism into the
Church Catholic, was a common one for the font before that
time. In cathedrals and other large churches one of the
transepts is occasionally used as a baptistery ; but there are
many old fonts in the country apparently occupying their
original position, and placed just within the south, or the
west, door.

The Puritans had a great aversion to the erection of stone
fonts, and endeavoured to substitute the use of movable

l6o LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

basins. Archbishop Parker, writing to Lord Burghley in
November, 1573, says, "In London our fonts must go
down, and the brazen eagles, which were ornaments in the
chancel and made for lectures, must be molten to make
pots and basins for new fonts ; I do but marvel what some
men mean, to gratify these Puritans railing against them-
selves, with such alteration, where order hath been taken
publicly this seven years by commissioners according to the
statute, that fonts should not be removed." The order
referred to was part of the Advertisements issued by the
bishops, which commanded " that the fonte be not removed,
nor that the curate do baptise in parishe churches in anye
basons, nor in any other forme then is already prescribed."
Even Henry Bullinger, the Genevan Protestant, reckoned
" a font ready to baptize infants in " among the ** instruments
belonging to the church ;" but the decent reverence with
which the people then regarded all the accessories of the
sacraments scandalized the more extreme men of that
faction. "Who dare handle the chalice, touch the altar-
stone, or put his hand into the font, or his finger into the
holy oil?*' asks William Tyndale, in his "Obedience of a
Christian Man," published in 1528.

Cranmer, in his "Answer to the Fifteen Articles of the
Rebels of Devon, 1549," tells them, "It was thought
sufficient to our forefathers (for baptism) to be done two
times in the year, at Easter and Whitsuntide ; as it appeareth
by divers of their councils and decrees, which forbid baptism
to be ministered at any other time than Easter and Whit-
suntide, except in cases of necessity : and there remained
lately divers signs and tokens thereof : for every Easter and
Whitsun even, until this time, the fonts were hallowed in

THE FONT. l6l

every church, and many collects and other prayers were
read for them that were baptized.*' -^Ifric issued minute
instructions to the Saxon clergy for this hallowing of the
fonts. The ceremonial according to the use of Sarum was
exceedingly impressive ; the officiating priest being attended
by five deacons, besides the deacon and sub-deacon of
the mass, and by acol3^es with cross, torches, incense, holy
oil, the paschal candle, and the book of the office. Both
on Easter Eve and Whitsun Eve the ceremony took place
immediately before mass, following, on the former occasion,
the benediction of the new fire and of the paschal candle.
The church accounts of past days contain many allusions to
this rite. The churchwardens of S. Andrew Hubbard, East
Cheap, in 15 lo, "paid for a pound taper for hallowing at
fonte and the cross candelas, viijd."; in 1552 a **towell for
the fonte taper," — one in which to envelope the lower part,
probably, while carrying it, — was provided for S. Elphege's,
Canterbury ; and at S. Mary Hill a small sum, usually ijd.,
was paid on several occasions in the early sixteenth century
" for water to be hallowed " at Easter even. A white doth
was wrapt about the font after its hallowing ; and at Salisbury
on every day during the succeeding Easter week there was a
solemn procession to the font and seven times around it

This blessing of the waters is a very ancient rite, and is
alluded to by some of the earliest Christian authors. S.
Cyprian, for instance, writing to Januarius and other Numi-
dian bishops, says, " It is required that the water should first
be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, that it may wash
away by its baptism the sins of the man who is baptized ; "
the " Apostolical Constitutions " also contain a form of bene-
diction of water for the sacrament of baptism.

U

l62 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

In the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. (1549) there is a
preface to the Baptismal Office which refers to the ancient
limitation of its administration to certain seasons. " It
appeareth by ancient writers," it says, " that the Sacrament
of Baptism in the old time was not commonly ministered
but at two times in the year, at Easter and Whitsuntide, at
which times it was openly ministered in the presence of all
the congregation : which custom (now being grown out of
use), although it cannot for many considerations be well
restored again, yet it is thought good to follow the same as
near as conveniently may be : wherefore the people are to be
admonished that it is most convenient that Baptism should
not be ministered but upon Sundays and other holy days,
when the most number of people may come together : as
well for that the congregation there present may testify the
receiving of them that be newly baptized into the number of
Christ's Church, as also because in the Baptism of Infants
every man present may be put in remembrance of his own
profession made to God in his Baptism.*' The restriction of
the sacrament, except in cases of necessity, to these two
great festivals is mentioned by Tertullian, S. Jerome, and
other early writers; S. Augustine includes the Epiphany
among the special seasons so marked. It is obvious,
however, that such a rule, however applicable to the case of
adult converts to the Faith, could not be enforced where the
Church had so far obtained the adhesion of the people that
almost all received her initial rites in their infancy. The
necessary exceptions in the latter case could not but be so
numerous as to obscure, and practically cancel, the rule.

The direction as to the days and times for the administra-
tion, laid down in the passage just quoted, still holds its

THE FONT. 163

place in our Prayer-book, and happily is better observed
than was even recently the case. In the first half of this
century, and even later, a strange idea prevailed that it was
" correct " to treat Baptism as a private rite ; and for the
administration of one of the most solemn and important
of the Church's sacraments, it was usual for priest, sponsors,
catechumen, and a " select party of friends," to assemble at
a day and hour when they were fairly certain to have the
church all to themselves. We meet with this peculiar usage
still in odd instances, but, like so many other practices of an
era happily departed, it is dying out.

It was not formerly customary to consecrate the water for
Holy Baptism before each administration of the sacrament,
as is the rule of our present Prayer-book ; but at intervals,
more or less frequent, it was blessed, and retained in the
font ready for use. By the Constitutions of Edmund,
Archbishop of Canterbury, issued in 1236, the water was to
be renewed weekly ; by the Prayer-book of 1549 it was to be
changed every month, and Ridley, in his Articles of Inquiry
at a visitation of the diocese of London in 1550, demands
whether this is done. According to the Scottish office of
1604, the fresh consecration was to take place fortnightly.
The Prayer-book of 1552 inserted a prayer corresponding to
this benediction in the office itself, although the actual
clause for the hallowing of the element was removed, and
not replaced until 1662.

Wealthy persons, who could afford the expense of pro-
curing it, have sometimes sent for water from the river
Jordan for the baptism of members of their families ; from
the not unnatural sentiment that no water is so appropriate
as that of the stream in which the Saviour Himself submitted

164 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

to baptism at the hands of S. John. According to Pennant,
a somewhat similar usage was in his time found in North
Wales. "If there be a fynnon vair, well of our Lady, or
other saint, in the parish," he tells us, " the water that is used
for baptism in the font is fetched thence.'* He goes on to
say, that " old women are very fond of washing their eyes
with the water after baptism."

A similar superstition exists in Yorkshire concerning the
first baptism in a new font, as we have seen to prevail
regarding the first interment in a new churchyard ; in each
it is especially unlucky. The infant first brought to the
font is doomed by the old wives of the parish to an early
death, an idea probably derived, like others that we have
considered, from a tradition of the Pagan custom, whereby
new buildings were inaugurated with animal, or even with
human, sacrifices.

When the baptism of a child in some family of local
importance was to take place, the church was occasionally
decorated for the service. Strype tells us how, when the
son of Sir Thomas Ghamberlayne was christened at S.
Benet's, Paul's Wharf, in 1559, "the Church was hung with
cloth of arras."

Two garments were of old specially provided against a
child's baptism, namely, the bearing cloth and the chrisom.
The former was a mantle, handsome according to the
means of the donors, who were usually the god-parents, in
which the infant was carried to the font. Stowe in his
chronicle tells us that at that time (1631) the ordinary gift of
the sponsors was "a christening shirt," adorned with silk
or blue thread. At Bittersley Court, in Shropshire, an
example is preserved ; it is of blue satin, embroidered with

THE FONT. 165

silver lace, and enriched with fringes and gold vignettes.
Shakespeare in "The Winter's Tale" (Act iii., 3), alludes to
this robe ; the shepherd, finding the infant Perdita, exclaims
** Here's a sight for thee ; look thee, a bearing cloth for a
squire's child ! " The chrisom was a white linen cloth put
about the head of the newly baptized, immediately before
the anointing with holy oil. The Prayer-book of 1549 has
this rubric, following the actual baptism; "Then the God-
fathers and Godmothers shall take and lay their hands upon
the child, and the minister shall put upon him his white
vesture, commonly called the Chrisom, and say — Take this
white vesture for a token of the innocency which by God's
grace in this holy sacrament of baptism is given unto thee ;
and for a sign whereby thou art admonished, so long as thou
livest, to give thyself to innocency of living, that, after this
transitory life, thou mayest be partaker of the life ever-
lasting : Amen." The chrisom was worn seven days, and
then was returned to the church, though if the infant died
within that time (or, as some say, before the mother's
churching), it was buried wrapt in its chrisom. A statute of
the Council of Oxford (1222) runs, "Let the casulae which
are put upon the newly baptized be, from reverence to the
sacrament, applied to the use of the Church." The employ-
ment of the word casula^ usually a chasuble, to describe the
chrisom is curious. An ecclesiastical canon of uncertain date,
but of about the same time as that just quoted, says also "Let
the chrismal clothes, which are put upon the newly baptized,
be brought to the church, and applied only to ecclesiastical
uses." Our old English name for this garment is evidently
connected with the anointing with chrism, or holy oil, which
followed the infant's investure in it

l66 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

From the use of this vesture a newly-baptized child was
anciently known as '* a chrisom child," a term which occurs
several times in our literature. In his "Holy Dying"
(chapter L, sec. 2), Jeremy Taylor has this singularly beau-
tiful passage ; '* Every morning creeps out of a dark cloud,
leaving behind it an ignorance and silence deep as midnight,
and undiscemed as are the phantoms that made a chrisom-
child to smile." Better known are Dame Quickl3r's words
concerning FalstaflTs death (" King Henry V.," Act ii., 3),
" 'A made a finer end, and went away an it had been any
christom child."

There is a north country custom which appears to be a
reminiscence of the chrisom ; namely, to allow the child to
sleep the first night after its baptism in the little white cap
which it wore at church. These caps were at one time
made of a peculiar shape ; they had no strings, and left the
ears, chin, and forehead bare, so that the wearers could be
christened without removing them.

In the early Church it was usual for parents to be sponsors
for their own children ; S. Augustine, indeed, finds it
necessary to point out that this is not an invariable rule.
To Boniface he writes, ** I would wish you not to remain
under the mistake of supposing that the bond of guilt which
is inherited from Adam cannot be cancelled in any other
way than by the parents themselves presenting their little
ones to receive the grace of Christ ; for you write : * As the
parents have been the authors of the life which makes them
liable to condemnation, the children should receive justifi-
cation through the same channel, through the faith of the
same parents,' whereas you see that many are not presented
by parents, but even by any strangers whatever, as

THE FONT. 167

sometimes the infant children of slaves are presented by
their masters. Sometimes, also, when their parents are
deceased, little orphans are baptized, being presented by
those who had it in their power to manifest their compassion
in this way. Again, sometimes foundlings, which heartless
parents have exposed in order to their being cared for by
any passer-by, are picked up by holy virgins, and are
presented for baptism by these persons, who neither have,
nor desire to have, children of their own."

Feeling, however, so far changed upon this subject that
the Council of Mentz, in 815, forbade, by its fifty-fifth
canon, parents to act as sponsors for their own children.
The idea was, in fact, growing that sponsorship created a
kind of spiritual kindred which excluded any other
relationship. A synod held in London in 1200, under
Archbishop Hubert, decreed that a godson should not
contract marriage with the daughter of the person who
baptized him, nor with the daughter of his sponsor, born
before or after. A quarter of a century later (1225) a
provincial synod in Scotland forbade marriage between
sponsors for the same child, between persons who had had
the same sponsors, and between sponsors and their
godchildren.

The Penitential of Egbert, Archbishop of York, issued in
750, ordained that "a man should receive (from the font) a
female child, and a woman a male child." It would seem
that a custom subsequently arose of unnecessarily multiplying
the sponsors, possibly with a view to a greater number of the
traditional gifts : for a Legatine Council held at York in
1 195, under the aforesaid Hubert, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, issued a canon as follows : " We command that in

1 68 LORE AXD LEGEND OF THE EKGLISH CHURCH.

baptism no more than three persons receive a child from
the holy font, namely, two men and one woman for a boy,
and two women and one man for a girl"; and again at
Oxford in 1222 a synod promulgated a similar decree, which
agrees with the existing rule of the Church.

As to the qualifications of sponsors, one of the Capitula
made by Ethelred in 994, asserts that '*it was anciently
decreed " that no one could assume that office unless he at
least knew the Creed and the Pater Noster, except
he were of such an age that it was hopeless to expect his
learning them. The Council of Cealchythe, in 785, had
decreed the same thing, and was possibly the ancient authority
alluded to ; it also ^dds the following useful reminder : " Let
those who receive children from the holy font, and answer
for those who cannot speak, for the renouncing of Satan and
his works and pomps, and for believing the Faith, know
that they are their sureties unto the Lord according to their
promise ; and when they shall have attained to a competent
age, let them teach them the aforesaid Pater Noster and
Creed." By a Synod held in London, under S. Anselm, in
1 102, monks and nuns were forbidden to be god-parents
at baptism.

The twenty-ninth canon of the English Church provides
that only communicants can act as god-parents, and also, in
accordance with ancient precedent, forbids parents under-
taking that office. Its terms are as follows : " No parent
shall be urged to be present, nor be admitted to answer as
Oodfathcr for his own child ; nor any Godfather or God-
mother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech,
thati by the Book of Common Prayer is prescribed in that
behalf : neither shall any person be admitted Godfather or

THE FONT. 169

Godmother to any child at Christening or Confirmation,
before the said person so undertaking hath received the holy
Communion." The convocation of the Southern Province
in 1865 altered this by the omission of the first clause
touching parents; but the Northern Province has not
interfered with the canon, nor has the amendment referred
to been confirmed by Royal Letters Patent.

In some districts of Cornwall it is held to be a sure sign
that a young man and woman are, or will be, sweethearts, if
they become sponsors, or, in the local phrase, '* stand
witness together," for the same child. Elsewhere, however,
in the same county and in other places, such an act is
thought to be fatal to the hopes of lovers ; the saying being
proverbial, "First at the font, never at the altar." Ac-
cording to a fancy prevalent in Staffordshire and in west
Shropshire, if one of the god-parents looks into the font, the
infant will grow up to resemble him.

The rule laid down by our Prayer-book as to the age at
which infants should be brought to church to be christened,
is now more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
They are seldom now baptized until the mother can also
come to be churched. The rule, however, is that they
should be presented on " the first or second Sunday next
after their birth, or other Holy-day falling between, unless
upon a great and reasonable cause, to be approved by the
Curate;" that is, upon the first, or at latest, the second,
opportunity. This has been the rubrical direction of each
Prayer-book from that of 1549 onwards. By an ancient
Northumbrian law, of about 950, every infant was to be
christened within nine days of birth, and the omission of
this entailed a fine upon the parents ; should " the infant

1 7© LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

die a pagan " within that time, the parents were bidden to
" make satisfaction to God without any earthly mulct," but if
beyond that time, a double fine was exacted. By a canon
of Edgar, dating about 960, every child was to be brought
to the font " within thirty-seven " nights of its birth.

Should there be several candidates for baptism at the
same time, it is essential, so they think in Norfolk, that all
the boys should first be christened ; as otherwise the girls
who precede them will infallibly have beards, while the lads
will grow up beardless ! This is probably a tradition of the
established usage in the Church, by which at Confirmation,
Communion, and at other times, the males take precedence
of the females.

There is of course no question but that the primitive
method of baptism was usually, if not universally, by
immersion, as is still the rule in the Eastern Church.
For a long time efforts were made to enforce this usage in
England. The Council of Cealchythe, under Wilfred, Arch-
bishop of York, in 816, reminded priests "that when they
administer baptism they ought not to pour the consecrated
water upon the infants' heads, but let them always be im-
mersed in the font, as the Son of God Himself afforded an
example unto all believers, when He was three times
immersed in the river Jordan." A synod at Cashel, in 1 172,
similarly decreed that children should "be baptized by a
three-fold immersion." This " trine immersion," as it is
called, was retained in the Prayer-book of 1549; the rubric
being : " Then the Priest shall take the child in his hands,
and ask the name : and naming the child, shall dip it in the
water thrice; first dipping the right side; second the left
side ; the third time dipping the face toward the font ; so it

THE FONT. 171

be discreetly and warily done." A subsequent rubric, how-
ever, states that "if the child be weak, it shall suffice to
pour water upon it." The Prayer-book of 1552 omitted
the three-fold immersion, still retaining baptism by im-
mersion, however, with the same exception as in the former
book ; and so the rubric still stands.

In this connection it may be well to observe that to place
in a church a font so small that the directions of the Prayer-
book cannot possibly be obeyed, even should the parents
desire it, is manifestly a violation of the spirit and intention
of the Church. It may also be noticed that the Church
knows nothing of " sprinkling," as a form of baptism ; if
immersion is not employed, affusion, or pouring, is enjoined.
The scattering of a few drops of water upon the infant, even
if the Sacrament is valid under such circumstances, is not in
accordance with the law of the Church.

It is a common superstition that it is unlucky for the
child not to cry at the moment of its baptism, the reason
being variously given, either that the cry is a sign of the
expulsion of the Devil, or that the want of a cry shows the
infant to be ** too good to live." In the Cornish church of
Wellcombe is a door in the north wall, locally known as
" the Devil's door," which is opened, at the renunciation in
the baptismal service, for the exorcised spirit to take his flight.

In Shropshire it is also considered to be unlucky to
mention a child's name until it is announced at the font ;
the father selects it, as a rule, and keeps it as a secret until
the last moment. The stories of quaint, and even extra-
ordinary names are almost endless. Scriptural names were
formerly far more popular than they are at the present day,
though the names of the most prominent saints in the

172 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Biblical story will probably always maintain their place as
common Christian names. In the effort to be original the
most unlikely and, for practical everyday use, most incon-
venient names have not seldom been selected from the same
honoured source. The name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, found
in Isaiah viii., i, has been borne by two men at least in
recent times, one resident in Cornwall, and the other in
Norfolk ; and there have been cases of unfortunate children
being condemned to go through life as Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego. In some districts it was at one time
customary to confer the Christian name of the incumbent of
a parish upon the first boy brought to the font after his
institution. The fashion in names is affected by many
things. A loyal regard for the reigning house has always
made the names of princes popular among the people;
as is illustrated by the common use of George in England
since the accession of the House of Hanover. In this
connection it will not be altogether out of place to notice
the curious aversion that royal families appear to have to
the name Thomas. Common as it is among the people, it
alone of our more usual names has been held by only a very
few princes, and by no sovereign throughout Europe. The
only exceptions seem to have been four princes of the House
of Plantagenet ; namely, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (son of
Henry III.), Thomas, Earl of Norfolk (son of Edward I.),
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester (son of Edward HI.), and
Thomas, Duke of Clarence (son of Henry IV.). A popular
book will sometimes give a name a temporary vogue, as is
strikingly shown by the number of girls christened Eva, in
memory of the heroine of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's celebrated
novel, " Uncle Tom's Cabin."

THE FONT. 173

The Puritan custom of using the titles of moral virtues,
or even passages of Scripture, as personal names, is well
known, and has often been made the subject of satire. To
the former class of names Shakespeare has been supposed to
allude, when he makes Antonio, in the Tempest (Act ii., i),
say, " Temperance was a delicate wench " ; and Taylor, the
water poet, refers to the want of harmony too often observ-
able between the character and the name in these cases,
when he says —

** Though bad they be, they will not bate an ace
To be called Prudence, Temperance, Faith, or Grace."

In one instance a man charged with a name of this kind
mounted eventually to the episcopal throne. Dr. Accepted
Frewen being consecrated to the See of Lichfield in 1644.
Of the other order of names just mentioned, the type is the
celebrated Praise-God Barbones, traditionally connected
with the Barebones Parliament. In his play, " Bartholomew
Fair,'' Ben Jonson introduces a Puritan pastor of the name
of Zeal-of-the-Land Busy, and a woman called Win-the-Fight
Littlewlt.

Instances are frequently quoted of exceedingly strange
names ; and nothing is in its way more curious than the fact
that, however far-fetched the case may at first seem to be,
the mention of it usually produces a crop of parallels. It
was but recently that a Church paper drew attention to the
registration of a child's baptism by the name Exuperious in
the year 1702 ; when correspondents promptly cited the
further examples of one Exuperious Pickering, who died in
1835 at Ruabon, and lies buried in Llandysylo churchyard,
and of a graduate of Balliol, Oxford, some thirty years since,
named Stephen Exsuperius Wentworth.

174 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The anointing of the newly-baptized infant with conse-
crated oil is a very ancient usage. The oil, which was
blessed for the purpose by the bishop on Maundy Thursday,
was compounded of olive oil and balsam. One of the
canons of ^Elfric, of 970, enjoins the priest to "have
consecrated oil of two sorts, one for children (that is, for
baptism), and the other for the sick," that is, of course,
for extreme unction. This ceremony was retained in the
Prayer-book of 1549.

In more than one part of England the idea prevails that
baptism is good for the bodies as well as the souls of
the infants, and a weakly child is brought to the font with
the confident hope that its ailments will disappear after
its admission to the Church.

The English synods were very emphatic in declaring that
the sacrament of Holy Baptism was to be freely administered.
A Legatine Council, held in London in 1126, under John
de Crema, issued a canon as follows ; " We also charge that
no fee whatsoever be exacted for the chrism, baptism,
penance, the visitation of the sick, unction, for the com-
munion of the Body of Christ, or for burial ; '* and this was
reiterated by another council at the same place in 11 38.
A synod at Westminster, in 11 73, even more strongly orders
that " for communion, chrism, baptism, extreme unction or
burial, not a penny, nor any fee must be exacted."

Before closing this chapter a few words may be added
concerning Confirmation, which, as being the completion of
baptism, may well be included with the initial sacrament of
the Church.

Only one superstition appears to have arisen concerning
this holy rite ; namely, that which holds it to be most unlucky

THE FONT. 175

to have the bishop's left hand only laid upon the head.
Where the prelate confirms two candidates at once, as
has come to be almost invariably the case, it follows that one
of necessity must kneel at his left hand. A case has been
known of a Devonshire woman seeking to be confirmed
a second time, because of her sinister fortune on the former
occasion. The idea though common, is usually vague ; in
the North, however, the evil is more defined, marriage never
being the lot, so they say, of those who had a left-handed
Confirmation.

Confirmation was formerly administered at a much earlier
age than is now usual with us. A synod at Durham in 1220
orders the suspension from communion of the parents of all
unconfirmed children of seven years of age, until such time
as they do their duty in that respect. A synod at Exeter in
1287 ordered Confirmation to follow baptism as soon as
possible, and " commanded that infants receive that
sacrament within three years after their birth." The rubrics
of our modern Prayer-book leave the age of the candidate
largely to the discretion of the parish priest and the bishop ;
simply saying that the children must have " come to years of
discretion," must be "of competent age," and able to say
the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Commandments in
their mother tongue, and answer the questions of the
Catechism. All who have proved their qualifications in
these respects are to have their names given by "the
Curate " to the bishop at his coming, for his acceptance or
rejection. This has been the rule since 1549.

One regulation, often forgotten now, it is to be feared,
is that at least one of the god-parents should be present
to witness each child's confirmation ; the words of the rubric

176 LORE AND LBGBND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

are, " Then shall they be brought to the Bishop by one that
shall be his Godfather, or Godmother, that every child may
have a witness of his Confirmation.''

It has been held that the baptismal name may be altered,
or added to, at Confirmation, by the Bishop's insertion of
the new name into the formula pronounced at the laying on
of hands ; but the claim to have this done is rarely made.

Anciently the rite of Confirmation included anointing
with hallowed oil, after which the newly confirmed person's
head was bound with a white linen fillet, which he wore for
several days. A constitution of Archbishop Reynold,
issued at Oxford in 1322, bids the candidates to come
fasting, and to see that they brought fillets sufficiently
large; it concludes thus, "Also let children who are
confirmed be taken to the church the third day after
confirmation, that their foreheads may be washed by the
priests near the font, from reverence to the chrism ; and
then let their fillets be all burnt together." Seven days
appears to have been the more usual time, however, for
keeping the fillet, and the remains of the unction, upon the
brow.

Two curious names once in vogue in England for
Baptism and Confirmation were Volowing and Bishopping,
The former arose from the priest's instruction to the
sponsors to reply " Volo " (I will) to the officiant ; the latter
came naturally enough from the fact that at Confirmation
only did the general mass of the people come in contact
with their bishop. Tyndale, in his "Obedience of a
Christian Man," published in 1528, says, "Baptism is called
volowing in many places of England, because the priest
saith * Volo^ say ye. *The child was well volowed' (say they);

THE FONT. 177

'Yea, and our vicar is as fair a volower as ever a priest
within twenty miles.' " And again in the " Answer to Sir
Thomas More's Dialogue," published by the same writer in
153 1, he says that it was not unusual to bring children "to
confirmation straight from baptism, so that now oft-times
they be volowed and bishopped both in one day."

12

CHAPTER IX.

Sod^t^xt Anb Cu5tom6 of (gUtriAge.

THE first formal notice which the Church gets of an
approaching wedding is, of course, by the first
publication of the banns ; and with a note or two on this
subject our chapter on marriage -lore must therefore
commence.

From the primitive ages the Church has used every
endeavour to prevent clandestine marriages, lest they should
be contracted improperly, or subsequently be improperly
renounced. Various methods have been used to ensure
publicity in different times and places; but a formal
notification to the faithful assembled in church of the
intended union has been the approved plan in England for
many centuries.

The eleventh canon of the Council of London, in 1200,
has a clause to this effect, •* Let not persons be married till a
threefold proclamation has been publicly made in the church,
unless by the special authority of the bishop;" the Con-
stitutions of Archbishop Reynold, dated 1322, also insisted
upon the publication of banns "upon three Sundays or
festivals distant from each other." Complaint having been
made that the bishop's licenses were frequently issued, un-
wittingly, to persons to whose marriage there were legal
objections. Convocation in 1460 proposed that two pub-
lications should be made compulsory before even a license
should be granted.

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 79

The law of the Church in England is now that banns be
published on "three several Sundaj^." The Council of
Trent orders the publication on three successive festivals.

The word banns is strictly a " proclamation," being con-
nected with an Aryan root meaning to "speak dearly.'*
Two other words were anciently used in England for banns
of marriage, namely, spurrings and sibrit The former
means "asking," being related to the Danish sforge^ and
found commonly in Scottish, in its original sense, in the
form speer, Sibrit, which appears also as sibbered, sybrede^
and sibberidge, was very early employed in this connection ;
strictly it means "relationship," or affinity ; and hence came
to mean a proclamation, or an enquiry, concerning affinity.
A curious cant phrase, used in several parts of the country,
as in such distant counties as York and Pembroke, is
"falling over the pulpit," which is locally understood to
imply having the banns published ; but the origin and the
actual meaning of the saying do not seem to be known.

It is not unnatural that the bride expectant should feel a
certain virgin shyness about hearing her own name and her
lover's openly announced in church ; it is therefore not
strange that she should almost invariably avoid being present
at the publication of her banns. In the North of England,
however, something more than maiden modesty is alleged in
defence of her conduct ; it is held to be absolutely unlucky
for her to hear the publication, her presence rendering it
probable that any offspring vouchsafed to her will be deaf
and dumb. In the parish of Wellow, Nottinghamshire, a
pretty custom existed until quite recent times for someone,
selected for the duty by the parish clerk, to rise in his place
as soon as the banns were published and to say aloud,

l8o LORB AND LEGEND OP THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

"God speed them well," to which clerk and congregation
audibly responded ''Amen." A curious fancy exists in
some places that it is unlucky, or as some would say even
illegal, for banns to be published on Sundays, some of
which are in one year and some in another, as on the last of
December and the first two in January. In Perthshire, even
if the Sundays are in different quarters of the year, it is held
to be ill-omened. There is certainly no foundation for the
doubt as to the legality of such a publication. Another
superstition in connection with banns is that, should a
death-bell toll for a married woman on the same day on
which the banns are published for the last time, the
prospective bride will not live beyond a twelvemonth.
This is a South Lincolnshire belief; and a case hap-
pened in 1888 which quite confirmed the local *^ old
wives " in it.

To have banns of marriage duly published and not
subsequently to proceed to the solemnization of matrimony,
was of old considered a slight upon those who had been
called upon to make, or to hear, the proclamation ; and it
was commonly spoken of as " mocking the Church." Fines
were frecjuently exacted for such conduct. The following
extract from the record of the Archdeacon of Lincoln's
visitation in 1636, shows that Church censures were
sometimes administered in such cases : " William Ingoles of
Skirbecke (Quarter and Hanna Moule : p[resented] : for
being publiquly asked in the Church 3 several Sundayes or
holydayes beinge 6 wookes since and not p'ceedinge to
marriage aooordit\g to y* I Awes Cannons and Constitutions
FciMi'all of this Church of England."

Forbidding the hanns takes place from lime to time in

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRrAGB. l8l

scattered instances, usually on the ground of the youth of
one of the parties, occasionally on that of their too near
relationship ; but this is so rare an occurrence as always to
create some little sensation when it happens. Of old, banns
were sometimes forbidden upon public, as well as private,
grounds, and that in a most formal way ; as witness the
following quaint extract from the parish register of Frampton,
Lincolnshire, for 1653. "The intentions of a marridg
betweenne Edward Morten who hath beene some tyme
in our Towne of Frampton & Jane Goodwin daughter of
John Goodwin & .... his wife of our sayd Towne, were
three several Lord's dayes published in our parish church
here, viz.' on Dec' 18'^ & on Dec' 25'^ & on Jan. i in y«
yeare of o' Lord 1653 & John Ayre & Thomas Appleby &
W°™- Eldred in behalfe of y^selves & other of y« inhabitants
did object y^ two things against y« marridg first y' although
ye sayd Edward Morten did live lately some short tyme as a
servant w'^ John Rowles of Algarkirke as they are informed,
and since hath come and beene w'*» John Goodwin of our
Towne of Frampton, yet they neyther know nor can learne
where he has liv'd before y' tyme, nor what hee is whether
a marryed or single man and therefore they desyred that his
marriage might bee deferred till such time as hee brought a
certificate of y** things. And secondly they did object that
for ought they know and as they verily believed hee was a
very poore man & y' hee had not then any house to live in,
& therefore they did desyre y' he might ere hee wur married
get some sufficient man to bee bound w'*» him to secure y«
Towne from any charge by him or his, whom they consider
they were not bound to keepe, hee being till hee lately crept
into y« foresay'd poore man John Goodwin (father of y*

lS2 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

foresay'd Jane) his house a poore Strang' to us. These
things were certifyed & are here recorded by inee.

Samuel Cony, Register of Frampton."*

In face of his opposition, Edward Morten may well have
thought there was something in the belief, above alluded to,
as to the unluckiness of banns published partly in one, and
partly in another, quarter of the year.

The banns of marriage having been duly published, and
" no impediment " having been alleged, the next important
consideration is the date of " the happy day " ; and in the
choice of this there are several questions to be considered.
There are first sundry seasons during which by ancient
Canon I^w — still in force, though frequently ignored —
marriage is prohibited. The chief Church fasts are obviously
unsuited to the celebration of wedding festivities; and a
reverence for the sacred mysteries commemorated, led to
their being forbidden within the octaves of the great
festivals. In accordance with this, the Constitutions for the
diocese of Sodor, drawn up in 1291, declare, "We forbid
any priest to celebrate a marriage from (the beginning of)
Lent to the octave of Easter." The full rule is given in the
Sarum Missal, and includes the solemn seasons of Advent,
I^nt, and Rogationtide, with the following festivals of
Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide ; so that the year was
mapped out in the method set forth in a note found in the
register at Norton ; " Marriage comes in on the 13th of
January, and at Septuagesima Sunday it is out again until
Low Sunday, at which time it comes in again and goes not
out till Rogation Sunday, thence it is forbidden until

* Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, vol. i., p. 109 (18S9).

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 83

Trinity Sunday, thence it is unforbidden till Advent, and
comes not in again till the 13th of January." The first and
last dates here given are, of course, that of the octave of the
Epiphany; throughout the statement the days named are
included in the times forbidden, the seasons lawful for
marriage commencing on the morrow and ending on the eve
in each case. In many parts of the country one of these
prohibited seasons is recalled in a popular saying,

** If you marry in Lent
You'll live to repent."

In the North of England there is a jingle which allocates
to each day in the week a certain measure of good or
ill-fortune, as a result of the marriage contracted upon it : —

** Monday for wealth,

Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all ;

Thursday for losses,

Friday for crosses,
And Saturday no luck at all."

It is noticeable that in this rhyme a wedding upon
Sunday is not contemplated at all, yet that day was at one time
fashionable for such events, especially in London and the
South of England. In " The Taming of the Shrew *' (Act
ii., i) Baptista says,

" On Sunday next, you know.
My daughter Katherine is to be married :
Now, on the Sunday following shall Bianca
Be bride to you, if you make this assurance ;
If not, to Signior Gremio."

There are other illustrations of this fact in the Elizabethan
dramatists.
The inauspicious character ascribed to Thursday is said

184 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

to arise from our Teutonic forefathers, after their conversion
to the Faith, looking upon Thor as but one of the
manifestations of Satan.

Friday, the weekly commemoration of the world's great
tragedy, the Crucifixion, is unlucky for all undertakings;
and consequently for weddings especially. "Friday is a
cross day for marriage," says the Comishman ; and probably
both his proverb and the lines above quoted are intended to
contain an allusion to the Cross, whose shadow darkens that
day.

In Scotland, and indeed throughout the Border country,
the whole month of May is regarded as singularly inauspicious
for weddings ; the old saying being,

" Marry in May,
Rue for aye."

This idea is derived from the superstitions of Pagan Rome,
where both February and May, together with the Kalends,
Nones, and Ides of every month, were considered to be
unsuitable for matrimony.

The day having been satisfactorily and auspiciously
chosen, we may turn our attention to the bridal party ; and
note who should be present in the church, and after what
fashion. For the bride herself, who of course claims
priority of place, tradition has settled various matters with
regard to the fitting attire for this crisis in her life. Every-
thing green in colour must be rigorously excluded ; Scotsmen
say, because it is the fairies' favourite hue, and they would
be jealous if earthly brides aflfected it. The poet Words-
worth was either ignorant of this prejudice, which is found
almost everywhere, or careless of it, when he made one of
his characters

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 85

" put on her gown of green,
And leave her mother at sixteen,
To follow Peter Bell."

White, by an old and widespread tradition, is the popular
ideal for a bridal dress ; and its suggestion of happiness
and of maiden purity should make it specially appropriate ;
but it does not seem to be actually prescribed by any of the
unwritten laws of the people. The chief positive direction
on the matter is that the bride must don

'* Something old, something new.
Something borrowed, and something blue."

It was of old the custom for her to wear her hair unbound
and unbraided, flowing freely upon her shoulders. The
Princess Elizabeth Stuart, at her marriage with the Palatine
on S. Valentine's Day, 1613, is recorded to have had "her
hair dishevelled and hanging down her shoulders." Shake-
speare alludes to this fashion when he puts into Constance's
mouth (" King John," Act iii., i) the words,

" O Lewis, stand fiist ! The devil tempts thee here,
In likeness of a new untrimmed bride."

It has been suggested that the bridal veil is nothing but
a milliner's substitute for this natural covering of ungirt
locks ; but it is more probably derived from the cloth or
canopy anciently held over the contracting parties during
part of the service, as is still the usage in Russia. The use
of this covering is perhaps derived from Jewish sources, and
it is still found, under the name of the Ta/etA, in use among
the modern Jews. In the pre-Reformation missals it is
called a pallium \ and there are directions for it to be held
above the heads of the bridal pair, as they prostrate them-
selves at the altar to receive the nuptial benediction.

1 86 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The use of orange-blossom for the adornment of the bride
is not a very old practice. Flowers of various kinds were
generally employed largely at weddings, strewn on the floor,
wrought into nosegays, or in other ways ; but it is obvious
that the bloom of a plant which blossoms only under ex-
ceptional circumstances in England, can never have been
used in a truly national or popular way.

Under certain circumstances it has been thought prudent
for a bride to appear at church in a much more primitive
costume than all this arrangement of white robes, and veils,
and flowers ; in fact brides have stood at the altar in the
least possible clothing that decency, and less than comfort,
required. It was an old idea that a husband, whose wife at
her marriage was clothed only in a sheet, or in the most
elementary linen garment, was not in any way liable for the
debts previously contracted by her. Our parish registers
and local traditions give us ample illustrations of this
quaint idea. At Chiltern All Saints', Wiltshire, is the
following entry : " John Bridmore and Anne Selwood were
married October 17th, 17 14, the aforesaid Anne Selwood
was married in her smock, without any clothes or head-
gier on." Similar cases occurred at Gorton Green in 1738,
at Ashton-under-Lyne in 1771, and at Otley in 1808. Arises
Birmingham Gazette for 1797 vouches for an extraordinary
story, according to which a bride disrobed in the vestry, and
appeared at the altar without even the amount of clothing
worn by the ladies in the above cases. The latest example
of which the present writer knows comes from Lincolnshire.
The register of Gedney has this commonplace entry;
"Deer. 2nd, 1842, David Wilkinson, full age, bachelor,
labourer, of Gedney," to " Susan Farran, full age, widow, of

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 87

Gedney." Local tradition supplements this brief account
by relating that the bride was dressed in a sheet, stitched
about her, with holes cut for the passage of her bare arms.
The idea of this singular custom evidently was, that the
husband took the person of the wife only, and received with
her no " worldly goods " whatever ; for there is one case on
record, as taking place at Whitehaven in 1766, where the
bride stript in this fashion before the marriage ceremony, in
order that her estate should not be liable for the husband's
debts. In London, to judge by a wedding that was
performed in February, 1723, the same end was gained by
somewhat more seemly means. It was held sufficient if the
bride, having shown herself at church in sheet or shift, was
before the ceremony clothed in garments which notoriously
had been purchased, not by her, but by the bridegroom.
It is rather noteworthy that so many of these brides, in their
eagerness to assume the dignity of wives, were quite
regardless of their personal comfort ; for in several instances
they chose most unpropitious seasons for appearing thus
lightly clad on the flagstones of a church floor. The
buxom widow of Gedney dared the weather of the 2nd
December : and the other caSes quoted mostly took place
in the spring or autumn. Mary Gee, of Gorton Green,
more prudently chose to be married in this simple guise on
June 25th.

It has been usual, time out of mind, for a maiden to be
accompanied to the altar by one or more of her maiden
friends : but no girl must perform this friendly office too
frequently, for the idea is almost universal that she who has
been thrice a bridesmaid will never be a bride. During the
procession of the company to the church, the old English

1 88 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

custom was for the bridegroom to go first, led by two
maidens, and for two men or boys to follow escorting the
bride. Waldron, describing the nuptial ceremonies of the
Isle of Man in 1726, tells us that "they have Bride-men
and Bride-maids, who lead the young couple, as in England,
only with this difference, that the former have ozier-wands
in their hands, as an emblem of superiority; they are
preceded by musick, who play all the while before them the
tune The Black and the Grey^ and no other ever is used at
weddings."

The one person who, by popular superstition, is bebarred
from attendance at a wedding, is, strange to say, the bride's
mother. The father is sometimes present at a rural
wedding to " give away the bride," but not frequently, that
office being more commonly assigned to the girl's brother ;
but the mother's presence is held to be absolutely unlucky.
This curious fancy is confined to no one district of the
country; it is found in Durham, in Shropshire, in Essex,
and in Suffolk, and no doubt in other counties also. The
presence of a widow at church, as one of the wedding
party, is also deemed inauspicious.

In Shropshire it is considered to be lucky for the " best
man," and even for the so-called bridesmaid, to be married.
This universal custom of providing an escort for " the happy
pair " is alleged to be a survival of the barbarian practice of
" wife-capture ; " a fact which was more obvious a century
or two ago, when, as just stated, the groom's-men brought
the bride to church. It was then usual for the lady to be
taken by her male escort by each hand, and actually led, as
if unwilling, to the church ; so in the ** Scornful Lady," of
Beaumont and Fletcher, the heroine asks, " Were these two

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 89

arms encompassed with the hands of batchelors to lead me
to the Church ? "

In anticipation of the arrival of the bridal procession, the
church was adorned with flowers, and the path and aisle
strewn with fresh rushes. William Browne, in " Britannia's
Pastoral " (i., 2), published in 1613, thus describes these
preparations : —

'* Full many maids, clad in their best array
In honour of the bride, come with their flaskets,
Fili'd full with flowers ; others in wicker baskets
Bring from the marish rushes to o'erspread
The ground whereon to church the lovers tread."

Wheat ears, the common symbal of plenty and prosperity,
seem occasionally to have been mingled with the rest ; since
we read in Rowe's " Happy Village," published in the
beginning of the last century, —

" The wheaten ear was scattered near the porch,
The green bloom blossom'd strew'd the way to church."

Formerly the first portion of the wedding service was
performed in the church-porch. The first rubric in the
Order for Matrimony in the Sarum Missal begins, ** Let the
man and woman be placed before the door of the church,
or in the face of the Church, before the presence of God,
the Priest, and the people ; " and after the completion
of the espousals, a further rubric says, " Here let them go
into church, to the step of the Altar." The Prayer-book of
1549 altered this, and each subsequent edition has but
followed its rubrics in this respect, ordering " the persons to
be married to come into the body of the Church with their
friends and neighbours ; " the priest and clerks, with the
man and woman, being subsequently directed, as in the

190 LORB AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

older rite, to go up to the altar. The principal door of the
church is generally opened for the bridal company to enter,
and, according to a Yorkshire tradition, they must be
careful to leave by the same ; since to come in by one
entrance and to go out by another will infallibly entail
lifelong misfortune.

Much folk-lore of various kinds has gathered round the
little circlet of gold, which fills so interesting a place in the
wedding ceremonial. In attempting to trace out the history
of the wedding-ring, it is difficult to escape from the confusion
which is caused by the amalgamation of the betrothal and
the matrimonial rites in one service. Anciently the former
was a formal act, entirely distinct from the marriage, yet
scarcely less solemn and binding; and the giving and
receiving of a ring formed an important part of the cere-
mony. The wedding-ring, as distinct from the betrothal-
ring, came into use about the tenth century ; although there
are passages in writings much earlier than that date which
seem to allude to it. Even at the beginning of the third
century we find TertuUian, in his Apologeticus (chapter vi.),
writing of a time " when a woman had yet known no gold
upon her save on the finger, which with the bridal ring
(pronubo annulo) her husband had sacredly pledged to him-
self." Remembering, however, the sacred character of the
ancient betrothal, to which marriage added little except a
solemn ratification, with the benediction of the Church, it is
not difficult to imagine that in this, and similar passages, the
betrothal emblem is really meant.

The practice of confining the wedding-ring to a simple
band of gold is comparatively modern, our forefathers
exercising a wider choice in the matter. Some rings were

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. IQT

enriched with gems ; others were in the form of the familiar
symbol of eternity, the coiled snake; on yet others the
figure of a favourite saint, and especially of S. Margaret,
the protectress of women in childbirth, was engraved. In
Tudor times the practice was almost universal of engraving
some motto, or "posy," on a wedding-ring. In Herrick's
"Hesperides" there is an allusion to this pretty custom,
in the lines : —

** What posies for our wedding rings,
What gloves we*U give and ribbonings."

Shakespeare has several references to it, though with respect
to love-tokens rather than to wedding-rings. In "The
Merchant of Venice" (Act v., i) Gratiano tells Portia that
he has quarrelled with Nerissa —

** About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
That she did give me ; whose posy was
For all the world like cutler's poetry
Upon a knife, * Love me, and leave me not,

9 »

Hamlet again (Act iii., 2) asks : —

" Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring ?"

And yet once more Jaques, in " As You Like It " (Act
iii., 2), says to Orlando : —

" You are full of pretty answers ; have you not been acquainted
with goldsmiths' wives, and conned them out of rings?"

So usualwere rings of this kind, that some ingenious individual
put forth a little collection of suitable mottoes, to aid those
whose originality was not equal to their composition. This
book, which was published in 1624, is entitled, "Love's
Garland, or Posies for Rings, Handkerchers, and Gloves,
and such pretty Tokens that Lovers send their Loves."

192 LORS AND LEGBND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

The following are a few extracts from the specimens

given : —

"All perfect love
Is from above.

In trust
Be just

Be tme to me
As I to thee.

To me till death
As deare as breath.

No crosse so strange
My love shall change.

In thee a flame
In me the same."

Other mottoes that have been found on English wedding,
or betrothal, rings are as follows : —

" Constancy and heaven are round,
And in this the Emblem's found.

.Weare me out, Love shall not waste :
Love beyond Tyme still is plac'd.

Our contract
Was Heaven's act

Not two but one
Till Ufe be done.

In thee my choice
I do rejoice."

Before the Reformation the wedding-ring was put on in a
more ceremonious way than is now enjoined. The ring
having been blessed by the priest, and sprinkled with holy
water as it lies "upon a dish or book," the directions for the
investiture of the bride with it are, in the Sarum Missal, as
follows : " Then let the Bridegroom put the ring on the
thumb of the Bride, saying — In the Name of the Father ;
(on the first finger) and of the Son ; (on the second finger)
and of the Holy Ghost ; (on the third finger) Amen. And

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 93

there let him leave it, because in that finger there is a certain
vein which reaches to the heart/' The reason here given
for the choice of the ring-finger is a very old one. Wheatley,
in his work on the Book of Common Prayer, says of it,
"This is now contradicted by experience, but several
eminent authors, as well Gentiles as Christians, as well
physicians as divines, were formerly of the opinion, and
therefore they thought this finger the properest to bear the
pledge of love, that from thence it might be conveyed, as it
were, to the heart."

Rings of various metals beside gold have been used for
the nuptial emblem in past days ; silver, iron, and steel all
had their specially appropriate significations ; even brass
and leather have been employed. In more than one case,
owing to the poverty or the forgetfulness of the bridegroom,
the bowl of the church door-key has been pressed into the
service, and has been placed on the bride's fourth finger to
do temporary duty as a wedding-ring. A canon of the
Synod of Durham (1220) contains the words, "Let not the
marriage ring be made of rushes, or of other vile materials."
A custom seems at one time to have existed, to which
allusion may here be made, of performing some kind of
mock marriage — without, of course, any countenance from
the Church — in which a rush ring was substituted for the
usual metal one ; and the union thus fdrmed was probably
dissolved as readily as such a ring could be snapt. Every-
one will recall, in this connection, the lines in the well-known
song of "The Mad Shepherdess" (or "My lodging is on
the cold ground "), —

** 1*11 crown thee with a garland of straw then,
And 1*11 marry thee with a rush ring."

13

194 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

This occurs in Davenant^s play, "The Rivals/* produced
in 1668, but is probably a much older composition. In the
old ballad, ** The Winchester Wedding," are the lines —

" And Tommy was loving to Kitty,
And wedded her with a rush ring."

Shakespeare perhaps has a reference to some such usage in
the Clown's words in "All's Well that Ends Well " (Act ii.,
2), "As fit as Tib's rush for Tom's forefinger." William
Tyndale also seems to glance at the practice in a passage in
his " Exposition of the First Epistle of S. John." " The
Jew," he says, " could believe no words, though an angel
had spoken, without a token ; . . . and likewise whatso-
ever they were bid to do, they must have had a token
of remembrance, though it had been but a ring of a rush."

The use of the wedding-ring was one of the ceremonies
strongly objected to by the extreme Reformers, and by the
Puritans of the Stuart era. Thomas Sampson and Laurence
Humphrey, two Reformers who were in frequent corres-
pondence with the fanatical Protestants of Geneva, write to
Henry Bullinger in 1566 a querulou^^ letter, full of lamenta-
tions over the "popish" practices stiL in vogue, and among
the rest they say, " Solemn betrothing takes place after the
popish method and rites, by the ring."

As to the objections of the Puritans, Butler tells in
" Hudibras " (Part iii., 2) of some who .

** were for abolishing
That tool of matrimony, a rinf ;
With which th' unsanctified bi degroom
Is marry'd only to a thumb ;
(As wise as ringing of a pig,
That us'd to break up ground, and dig)
The bride to nothing but her will,
That nulls the after marriage stil'."

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MAJOaAGE. 1 95

Other satirists of the time point their shafts against the same

place in the Puritans' attack upon the Church. In "A

Long- Winded Xay Lecture," published in 1674, are the

following lines : —

*' Because the wedding-ring's a &.shion old,
And signifies by the purity of gold
The purity required in th' married pair.
And by the rotundity the union fsiir.
Which ought to be between them endless ; for
No other reason, we that use abhor."

Again, in a collection of " Loyal Songs," is one entitled " A

Curtain Lecture," in which is the following passage : —

" They will not hear of wedding-rings,
For to be us'd in their marriage ;
But say they're superstitious things.
And do religion much disparage ;
They are but vain, and things profane,
Wherefore now no wit bespeaks them,
So to be ty'd unto the bride,
But do it as the spirit moves them."

One such objector was Thomas Cartwright, who, in his
controversy with Archbishop Whitgift, writes, "They use
yet a sacramental sign to which they attribute the virtue of
wedlock, I mean the wedding-ring, which they foully abuse
and dally withal, in taking it up and laying it down ; in
putting it on they abuse the name of the Trinity." Hooker,
dealing with the Puritans of his own day, observes that
" The ring hath been always used as an especial pledge of
faith and fidelity : nothing more fit to serve as a token of our
purposed endless continuance in that which we never ought
to revoke."

It is esteemed exceedingly unlucky if the wedding-ring be
sufiered to drop to the ground during the service ; in some
parts of Shropshire it is supposed that which ever of the

196 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

bridal couple was so unfortunate as to drop it, will be the
first of the two to die. It is, of course, everywhere con-
sidered ominous if the lady takes off the ring, and specially
so should she break it, or lose it. The natural wearing away
of the little circlet is variously interpreted. One proverb
makes it a happy indication, for it declares

** As your wedding-ring wears.
You'll outlive your cares. "

But should the process proceed so far that the slender line
snaps, it is held to fortell the speedy release of the twain
from that vow, which they promised to keep " till death did
them part." Usually it is supposed that the husband's
death is foreshadowed. A curious idea formerly existed
among the less educated folk of Oswestry, that if a husband
failed to maintain his wife, she could free herself entirely
from the nuptial bond, and marry again, by the simple
process of returning her ring to her partner.

At one time it was not unusual to present rings to the
friends and neighbours in commemoration of a wedding.
Anthony k Wood relates of Edward Kelly, the alchymist,
who died in 1595, that "Kelly, who was openly profuse
beyond the modest limits of a sober philosopher, did give
away in gold wire rings (or rings twisted with three gold
wires) at the marriage of one of his maid-servants, to the

»

value of ;£4,ooo."

In some parts of Ireland it is supposed that the contract
is invalid if anything but a gold ring be used; and
consequently, to accommodate the poor, rings of that precious
metal may be had on hire for the occasion ; or the priest
keeps one, which is used for all who are not provided with a
ring of their own.

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 97

The modern Prayer-book bids the bridegroom lay upon
the priests' book not only the ring, but also "the accustomed
duty to the Priest and Clerk.'' In the book of 1549 these
latter offerings were spoken of as " other tokens of spousage,
as gold and silver " ; and the Sarum Missal, having similarly
ordered the placing of " gold, silver and a ring on a dish or
book," explains that " by the purity of the silver is signified
the inward affection which ought ever to be fresh between "
the married pair. It is to be regretted that the almost
universal neglect of this portion of the present rubric has
suffered this relic of a very ancient custom to be forgotten ;
it would appear, however, that such neglect is by no means
recent, for Hooker, in explaining the origin of the usage,
speaks of its lapse as already visible. "The custom of
laying down money," so he tells us, " seemeth to have been
derived from the Saxons, whose manner was to buy their
wives : but seeing that there is not any great cause
wherefore the memory of that custom should remain, it
skilleth not much although we suffer it to lie dead, even as
we see it in a manner already worn out."

Hooker, in a subsequent paragraph, answers the criticism
which had been levelled against the word " worship," as used
in the bridegroom's declaration in delivering the ring to the
bride, " With my body I thee worship." As the expression
is still sometimes cavilled at, it will not be out of place to
add a note here on the subject. Cartwright, in his
controversy with Whitgift, absurdly alleges that " they make
the new-married man according to the popish form to make
fin idol of his wife, saying, * With this ring I thee wed, with
y my body I thee worship.' " Whitgift and Hooker, of course,
" both point out that the term means 'honour,' and does not

198 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

necessarily there, or elsewhere, imply divine honour. Of
this original and correct meaning of * worship * we have still
several familiar examples. In Holy Scripture, for instance,
we read how "all the congregation . . . bowed their
heads, and worshipped the Lord, and the King" (i Chron.
xxix., 20) ; again of the unforgiving servant in the
Saviour's parable (S. Matt, xviii., 26) it is related that " he
fell down and worshipped " his lord ; and yet again, also in
the Saviour's words (S. Luke xiv., 10), he who humbles
himself "shall have worship in the presence of them that sit
at meat " with him. The word itself is but another form of
worthship^ and implies " to treat as worthy," and hence " to
honour " ; thus the formal titles of the " Right Honourable
the Lord Mayor," and of " His Worship the Mayor," are not
so dissimilar as they appear. The whole of the solemn
declarations of the bride and bridegroom are almost word
for word those which occurred in the pre-Reformation
services ; where, although the office was in the Latin tongue,
the promises and vows of the contracting parties were
naturally in the vernacular.

An idea at one time prevailed in rural districts that it was
a proper, if not an essential, part of the ceremony that the
priest should, at the conclusion, kiss the bride. This was
no doubt a reminiscence of the kiss of peace as given at the
nuptial mass, but altered in the tradition ; since it is the
bridegroom, and not, according to this less seemly fancy, the
priest, who salutes the bride. The rubric in the Sarum
Missal is very clear. After the Agnus Deiy the paf^'um,
or nuptial canopy, is removed from above the heads of the
married couple, and then the direction runs as follows ;
" Let the Bridegroom and the Bride rise, and let the

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 1 99

Bridegroom receive the Peace from the Priest and give
it to the Bride, kissing her, and no one else ; but let the
Clergy receive the Peace from the Priest, and pass it on
to the rest after the accustomed manner." Marston, in his
" Insatiate Countess," published in 1613, has an allusion to

this nuptial kiss in the words,

** The kiss thou gav'st me in the church, here take."

Shakespeare describing, through Gremio, the boisterous

conduct of Petruchio at his wedding with Katharine

(" Taming of the Shrew," Act iii., 2), says,

** He took the bride about the neck,
And kiss*d her lips with such a clamorous smack,
That, at the parting, all the church did echo ; "

and again he makes Richard II. (Act v., i), on hearing
of his separation from his queen, exclaim,

** Doubly divorc'd ! Bad men, ye violate
A two-fold marriage ; 'twixt my crown and me,
And then betwixt me and my wedded wife.
Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me ;
And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made."

A celebration of the Holy Eucharist, at which the bride and
bridegroom were communicants, formed the conclusion
of the marriage service, not only in pre-Reformation times,
but by the rubrics of the Prayer-books of 1 549, and even of
1552; in both of which it is stated, "The new married
persons (the same day of their marriage) must receive the
Holy Communion." The present book contents itself with
saying that " it is convenient " for them so to do.

Among other wedding superstitions is one, commonly
held, that it is unlucky, if the bride, in taking her husband's
surname, does not also alter her initials; or, as it runs
in rhyme —

200 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

" If you change the name and not the letter,
You change for the worse and not for the better.

))

It is, on the other hand, a very happy omen if the new
initials spell some word.

At Whitburn, near Sunderland, a unique custom exists in
connection with weddings. Friends of the newly-made
husband and wife send pots of a hot compounded beverage
to meet the party as it comes out of church ; the bridegroom
first tastes each pot, and passes it to the bride ; after which
all the party in turn drink. In some instances this must be
a lengthy process, and one not a little trying to the partakers ;
for at a wedding some half-century ago, as many as forty
pots are said to have awaited the appearance of a popular
couple. This looks very like a degenerated relic of an
ancient usage. At the conclusion of the nuptial mass
according to the Sarum use, we find the following rubric :
" After Mass let bread and wine, or any liquid, be blessed,
and let them drink it in the name of the Lord." This was
perhaps originally merely for the sustenance of the wedded
pair, who, as they had communicated, had of course been
fasting up to this time. There are many allusions to this
practice in our literature. In that passage in " the Taming
of the Shrew " (Act iii., 2) already referred to, we are told
how Petruchio

** quafTd off the muscadel,
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face."

In DekkePs " Satiro-Mastix " (1602) we read, "When we
are at church bring the wine and cakes." At Wilsdon,
according to an inventory of 1547, there were kept in the
church two masers " for to drynke in at bride-ales." Many

FOLK-LORE AND CUSTOMS OF MARRIAGE. 20I

Other references might be adduced to this once familiar
practice.

In the sanctuary of Jarrow Church, Northumberland, is a
time-worn chair, traditionally, and not improbably, known as
that of the Venerable Bede. This formerly stood in the
vestry ; and every bride, when the party retired thither for
the signing of the register, was careful to seat herself in the
old oak chair, as thereby she ensured her own becoming the
"joyful mother of children."

Another north country custom, now probably almost, if
not quite, extinct, is the use of " the petting stone." This
was a stone raised on two others so as to form a barrier
across the church-porch, or in the churchyard path, over
which the bridal party had to leap. It was supposed to
test the bride's willingness to follow her husband even
through difficulties. Sometimes, however, it took the form
of a long stone, on which the bride had to mount, and
endeavour to step from end to end at a stride, her inability
to accomplish which was ominous of future unhappiness.

Music has been from time immemorial an important
adjunct to the joyousness of a wedding solemnity. Bride
and groom were escorted to and from the church with
instrumental music, and the office itself gathered added
dignity and brightness from both vocal and instrumental
melody. Hymen, in " As You Like It " (Act v., 4), speaks
of "wedlock hymns ;" and Capulet, at the supposed death of
Juliet (" Romeo and Juliet," Act iv., 5) on the eve of her
wedding, declares that the " solemn hymns to sullen dirges
change." Nothing could surpass the quaintness of the
following account of wedding music, which occurs in
Vernon's " Hunting of Purgatory to Death," published in

202 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

1 56 1 : — " I knewe a priest (this is a true tale that I tell you,
and no lye), whiche, when any of his parishioners should be
maryed, woulde take his backe-pype, and go fetche theym to
the churche, playnge sweetelye afore them, and then would
he laye his instrument handsomely upon the aultare till he
had maryed them and sayd masse; which thyng being
done, he would gentillye bringe them home agayne with
back-pype."

CHAPTER X.

Z^c C^ancef artb t^t C^oix.

FROM primitive times it has been usual to divide the
interiors of churches into sections, increasing in
sanctity as one advances eastward. In the outer courts,
and, for some parts of the services, in the lower portions of
the nave, even heretics and heathen were suffered to stand
to hear the preaching of the faith ; beyond them the faithful
in full enjoyment of the privileges of the Church had their
places ; but beyond even these lay the sacred enclosure
within which only the clergy might enter. This was anciently
variously named. It was the dema^ a word sometimes
meaning the lectern, sometimes the raised bench of seats
for the priests, and sometimes the part of the church in
which both these were situated; it was the sacrarium or
sanctuary, as corresponding with the Sanctum Sanctorum of
the older Dispensation ; it was the thusiasterion, the place
of the altar, the word strictly meaning the altar itself ; it was
the presbytery^ or place of the priests ; and yet further it was
named adyta^ the place inaccessible to the laity. None of
these titles have been brought into use among us as descriptive
of this section of the church, although we employ sacrarium,
and less frequently presbytery, to indicate the section within
the altar-rails. Two other expressions, however, have early
authority, and are still familiar to us. The fourth Council
of Toledo, held in 633, in its seventeenth canon, bids the

204 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

priests and deacons to communicate before the altar, the
clerks, or inferior clergy, within the choir (in charo\ and the
people outside the choir. Again, Eusebius of Caesarea, who
flourished about 315, tells us that, in the church built by
Paulinus, the extremity containing the altar "was divided
from the rest by certain rails of wood, curiously and arti-
ficially wrought into the form of network, to render it
inaccessible to the multitude ;'' and from this network
barrier, of which this is our earliest instance, called in Latin
cancelli^ we get our modern name chancel.

The idea that the whole congregation has a right to see
everything which goes on within the chancel — an idea which
has led in not a few cases to the mutilation, or even the
destruction, of chancel screens — is certainly not primitive ;
for it was an early custom not only to fence off this sacred
enclosure from the approach of the laity, but also to veil it
from their gaze. The Eastern Church, the most conservative
portion of Christendom, still shuts in the chancel with a solid
screen pierced only by " the Holy Gates," which are closed
and curtained at the most sublime portions of the holy
mysteries. Similarly Synesius (about 410) speaks of "the
mystical veils," S. Chrysostom (about 398) and Evagrius
(about 594) of "the folding doors," and S. Athanasius
(about 330) of " the hangings " ; all of them referring to the
same thing, namely, the screen, impenetrable to the eyes of
the people, which separated the chancel from the nave.
Such ponderous stone screens, pierced only by a central arch
for gates, as we see in the cathedrals of York, Lincoln, and
elsewhere, are so far from being the outcome of " the dark
ages" that they are distinctly primitive in idea, if not in
form.

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 205

We will not, however, spend time here considering the
rood-screen and its statuary, the great crucifix with its
attendant figures of the Blessed Virgin-mother and S. John,
beyond saying that in mediaeval days almost all English
churches were provided with this imposing structure, or at
least with a beam carrying the three figures, forming a fitting
entrance to the most sacred portion of the House of God ;
and that in not a few churches, both in towns and in villages,
its use has now been restored.* Beneath this loft let us
pass within the chancel itself.

During the celebration of divine service the laity were
rigidly excluded from this section of the church, although
there is evidence that the right to occupy some part of it
was often claimed by the wealthier or the more powerful
parishioners. The Constitutions of Bishop Walter, of
Durham, in 1255, bid "rectors and others to prevent
laymen from sitting or standing in the chancel during
the celebration of mass, unless they be patrons of the
churches, or unless some venerable person be admitted out
of respect." A Provincial Council in Scotland in 1225
promulgated a canon to this effect, " Let not laymen presume
to sit or stand among the clerks about the altar, while the holy
mysteries are celebrating, except our lord the King and the
nobility of the realm." Again in 1 230 among sundry articles of
enquiry in the diocese of Lincoln, it is asked " Whether any
of the laity persist in standing in the chancel with the clergy."
From the days of the Revolution down to recent times, an
era as ignorant of ecclesiastical usages as it was, for the

* For further notice of the rood-loft, its uses, destruction, and restora-
tion, the reader is referred to the author's "The Cross in Ritual,
Architecture, and Art" (Andrews & Co.).

2o6 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

most part, careless of them, the chancels of our churches
were in many instances blocked with high pews, which
reached almost to the very steps of the altar. We have now
substituted almost throughout the country another and far
more seemly custom, but one which, in the case of ordinary
parish churches, is almost as far removed from the methods
of our ancestors. For it is certainly a mistake to suppose
that the long lines of white-robed choristers are really a
revival of an ancient usage in the bulk of our parish
churches. '* Choirs and places where they sing " meant, in
mediaeval times, cathedral and collegiate churches, but did
not include the ordinary parish churches. The chancel was
thus anciently reserved for the exclusive use of the clergy
and the assistant ministers at the altar, with the addition, in
churches having a capitular body, of such singers as were
provided for on the foundation.

Much may be said on behalf of our more modern usage,
but it must be admitted that the tendency is to push it to
an inconvenient extreme. Nothing is added to the dignity
of the Church, or gained by its music, in crowding the
chancel of a small rural church with benches, and con-
signing the chief part in the singing to a body of untrained
men and boys. In such cases it surely would be better to
preserve such space as the little chancel affords to the
clergy (and acolytes, if there be any) alone ; and to entrust
such music as the people can sing to the people themselves,
led by a small choir sitting near them or among them.

In connection with the exceptions named above, whereby
certain laymen were allowed seats within the chancel, it is
interesting to note that the sovereign of England has of
right a prebendal stall in the choir of S. David's Cathedral.

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 207

At the time of the Reformation this belonged, ex officio^ to
the Master of S. Mary's College in that city ; and at the
suppression of all such foundations the property of S. Mary's
was seized by the Crown, and given away or sold. A
prebendal stall, however, not being worth much as a
marketable commodity, this remained in the hands of the
King, and passed with his other dignities to his successors.
It is scarcely needful to add, that the right to the stall did
not, nor was ever suggested to, confer any sacerdotal
privileges.

The earliest form of chancel terminated in an apse ; the
altar standing upon the chord of the arc, a throne for the
bishop being behind it against the eastern wall, and seats for
the clergy filling the curve on either side of the throne. We
have traces of such an arrangement in the cathedrals of
Canterbury and Norwich, but basilican churches, of which
this form of chancel was one characteristic, were never
general in this country. It would seem as if, in early times,
not much more accommodation was made for the clergy in
the chancel than for the laity in the nave ; for the recognized
name of the priests' places during the choir-offices is stalls^
which strictly means standing places, and not seats.
Standing and kneeling were in fact the only attitudes
formally recognized during divine service; sitting was
afterwards allowed as a concession, rather than a right.
The dignity of the bishop has, however, always been
marked by the provision of a throne for his use in cathedral
churches. In Greece a T-shaped crutch is allowed to the
aged monks to support them during the recitation of the
offices ; and the introduction of a similar practice in the
monasteries of the west was the first departure from the

2o8 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

rigour of the original rule, which insisted upon all monks
standing throughout their services, except when required to
kneel.

The rule once relaxed, the way was open for the gradual
development of the stalls, with arm-rests, book-rests,
canopies, and hassocks, as we find them to-day. In the
ninth and two following centuries, we read of forms for the
use of the clergy ; Maestricht had stalls in 1088 ; from the
thirteenth to the fifteenth century we find ample notices of
the adornment of these seats with carvings, hangings,
painting, and canopies. At first, however, only the higher
dignitaries and aged monks were allowed to occupy stalls ;
deacons, and junior monks, sat on benches below them ;
while choristers and vicars-choral stood or knelt upon the
floor. For the due oversight of all the members of the
choir, the four persons of highest dignity sat at the four
corners ; the dean in the westernmost stall on the south
side, the precentor in the corresponding one on the north,
while the chancellor and the treasurer were similarly placed
at the eastern end ; between these sat the other members
of the chapter in order of seniority. Frequently the
westernmost stalls, to the number of three or four on each
side, were *' returned," that is, turned round so as to face the
altar.

In many of our old conventual churches we find a form
of seat which was intended to provide a compromise
between the standing posture, at first insisted upon for the
recitation of the Psalter, and the sitting position,
subsequently tolerated. This ingenious arrangement was
known as a misertcorde, and is sometimes less correctly called
a miserere. It consisted of a narrow shelf beneath the seat ;

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 209

SO that the latter, which was hinged, having been raised, the
occupant of it could rest, half-sitting and half-standing,
against the ledge beneath it. There is an early English
example in the Lady Chapel at Westminster ; and several in
different places have attracted some attention from the
curious carvings with which they have been adorned. It
would almost look as if the monastic artist, having work
assigned to him which would seldom meet the eye of his
brethren, and scarcely ever that of the laity (for the miseri-
corde is, as we have pointed out, on the under-side of the
seat, and visible only when that is raised), sometimes gave
full liberty — not to say license — to his fancy ; and in this
way gave us examples of monastic humour which are rather
interesting than edifying, rather commendable in handicraft
than in taste, as decorations of the church.

At Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, a church once
served by the monks of Croyland Abbey, is a misericorde,
the carving of which, if secular, is at least not flippant. It
represents a shoemaker with a board upon his knees, on
which lie various implements of his craft, among which the
awl, the hammer, the file, and sundry knives can be readily
distinguished ; he is occupied in cutting out a leather rose
for the decoration of a shoe. The church has five other
misericordes, all of them dating probably from the reign of
Edward IV. Among the satirical subjects carved on these
misericordes, a favourite was the preaching fox. It appears
at Ripon ; Reynard being in the pulpit, with a goose and a
cock, standing in an attitude of great attention, on either
side. A similar scene, or another in which the fox suffers
the last penalty of the law and hangs upon a gallows, is
found at S. Mary's, Beverley, at Boston, Bristol, Nantwich,

14

2IO LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

and Sherborne. At Beverley are a number of quaintly
carved misericordes ; on one two cocks are sparring on a
barrel, others have figures of a cock, and of an elephant
driven by a monkey. In several cases we find what is
alleged to be a mediaeval form of the classic emblem for the
day with its preceding and following nights, known as
Darkness devouring Light. The usual antique figure
consists of two eagles watching the altar of the sun, or
pecking the fire therefrom ; on a misericorde at Beverley it
appears as two swans with a cylinder between them, from
which they feed ; at Ripon the altar has been replaced by a
tree. At Wells is a carving which recalls one of our most
familiar nursery rhymes, and a not uncommon publican's
sign, the cat and fiddle; the same combination occurs
elsewhere. Other strange groups are a sow playing the
bagpipes for a number of dancing pigs, at Boston ; several
frolicking jesters, and some grimacing jesters' heads, at
Beverley; and numerous equally curious and fanciful
carvings. Scriptural subjects, however, are also represented ;
as the story of Samson and of Jonah at Ripon, and the
return of the Israelite spies at Beverley. Besides the places
already named, interesting examples of misericordes may be
found at Exeter, dating from the thirteenth century; at
Chichester, Ely, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, Bristol,
Manchester, Chester, Cartmel, Darlington, Wimborne,
Penkridge, and in several other places.

The adornment of the chancel, except by such permanent
decoration as the carving of wood in screen, stalls, and
perhaps reredos, or of stone in arches, niches, and so forth,
does not call for much remark. The altar is vested in
colours varying according to the sacred seasons of the

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 211

Christian year; and sometimes hangings of rich colours
used to be introduced to add warmth of look to the chancel
on special occasions. Among the ornaments preserved at
S. Paul's in the seventh year of King Edward VI. were
*'baudkins of divers sorts and colours, for garnishing the
quire for the King's coming, and for the Bishop's seat."

A . natural mode of expressing joy, still used without
criticism in secular rejoicings, is by means of illuminations ;
and the Church has chosen a similar mode of manifesting
her feelings; though here the Puritan finds matter for
objection. The great Paschal Candle, lighted on Easter
Eve and placed near the altar, as a symbol of the return of
Him, who is the Light of the World, and as a token of
Easter joy, was often a most magnificent structure. In
1557 three hundred pounds of wax were required for the
making of one used at Westminster Abbey ; at Durham, the
candle-stand, besides holding " a great long square taper of
wax called the Pascall," had sconces, in the form of flowers
of metal, for six smaller tapers, and had a great deal of
carved work and beaten metal to adorn it. Parish accounts
often allude to the provision of this great taper, which is
kept burning at vespers and mass from Easter Eve to the
Gospel on Ascension Day ; at Reading, for instance, 5s. 8d.
was paid in 1559 for "makyngeof the Paschall and Funte
(font) Taper."

Candlemas, as its name implies, was another occasion for
an ecclesiastical illumination. At the procession before the
High Mass a multitude of tapers was carried ; but the
chancel also received its special adornment by the burning
of many lights. There is a curious account of an attempt
made by Cosin, subsequently the first bishop of Durham

212 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

after the Restoration, to revive this striking usage in the
northern cathedral. It is contained in a sermon entitled
"The Vanity and Downfall of superstitious Popish
ceremonies, preached in the Cathedral Church of Durham,
by one Peter Smart, a prebend there, July 27th, 1626."
The tale which Prebendary Smart waxes so wrath over is to
the effect that " on Candlemas Day last past, Mr. Cozens, in
renewing the Popish Ceremony of burning candles to the
honour of Our Lady, busied himself from two of the clock
in the afternoon till four, in climbing up long ladders to
stick up wax candles in the said Cathedral Church : the
number of all the candles burnt that evening was two
hundred and twenty, besides sixteen torches, — sixty of those
burning tapers and torches standing upon, and near, the
high altar (as he called it), where no man came nigh."

As to the number, and use, of the candles upon the altar,
or altars, of the Church, the cross, or crucifix, which stands
amid them, and the flowers which so frequently are mingled
with them, nothing need here be said; except that there
is ample evidence that the modern revived employment
of them has connecting links with their usage in the remote
past, in their appearance here and there upon our altars,
even in the days of the greatest irreverence, ignorance,
and neglect.

There was a custom for the choristers themselves, and
even the priests, in some places to deck themselves with
flowers on S. Barnabas' Day (June nth). In the parish
accounts for S. Mary-at-Hill, London, during the reign
of Edward IV., there is the entry of a sum disbursed for
^ Rose garlondis and Wood rove garlondis on St. Barnebe's
Daye ; " and in i486 the following occurs : ** Item, for two

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 213

doss' di boose garlands for prestes and clerkes on Saynt
Barnabe daye, js. xd ;" and yet again, in 15 12, we read,
"Rose-garlands and Lavender, St. Barnabas, js. vjd."
Anciently the feast of S. Barnabas, falling so near Mid-
summer Day, was far more regarded in England than it
is at present. At Lichfield Cathedral on Ascension Day
the choristers " beat the bounds " of the moated close, the
boys bearing long green boughs, which they carry with them
from the church, and on returning deposit on the steps
of the font.

One of the most extraordinary customs, as it seems to us,
in connection with the choir is the practice, once in vogue,
of playing at ball in church at Easter. Among other places
it is recorded to have taken place at Chester Cathedral on
Easter Monday. The origin of the usage is obscure, though
it has been supposed to be not distantly related to the more
general Easter custom of presenting coloured eggs to one's
friends. However it arose, it was conducted in a fashion
which implies that it had some religious significance, and
was in fact considered at its commencement as a religious
ceremony. The deacon received the ball, and immediately
began to chant an antiphon, moving meanwhile in a stately
step in time to the music ; then with his left hand he tossed,
or handed, the ball to another of the clergy ; when it had
reached the hands of the dean, he threw it in turn to each
of the choristers, the antiphon, accompanied by the organ,
meanwhile continuing. The statutes of the cathedrals
regulated the size of the balls used in this strange rite. In
many places there is a tradition still that the game of
football is especially appropriate to Easter Monday ; and in
several towns until quite recent times that game was played

214 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

in the streets by a promiscuous concourse of people on that
day. It is natural to imagine that there may be some
common origin to this and to the practice just described.

Another form of " sport," once popular in Yorkshire, and
especially in the city of York, is alleged by tradition to have
taken its rise in the chancel of a church in the northern
metropolis. The festival of S. Luke was known throughout
the North as Whip-dog Day, from the absurd and brutal
custom of encouraging every lad to go about on that day
with a whip, and pursue and beat every unhappy dog that
he might encounter. The story which is quoted in explana-
tion of this, is to the effect that a priest, in singing mass on
S. Luke's Day in a church in York, by some accident dropt
the consecrated host, which was snapt up by a dog which
had crept in unawares and lain down beneath the altar.
The dog, according to this rather improbable tale, paid the
penalty of its sacrilege with its life, and all other dogs had
to suffer an annual castigation in memory of that fact for
many years after.

The ceremonial of creating a Boy-Bishop at Childermas
and on S. Nicholas' Day has very often been described.
We have notices of this custom in all. parts of the country,
not only in cathedral and collegiate churches, but in many
simple parish churches. The office of " barne bishop '* can
be traced back as far as 13 19 at Salisbury, and to 1369 at
York. Colet, Dean of S. Paul's, found much that was com-
mendable in the usage, and in his statutes for S. Paul's
School, issued in 1578, ordained that the scholars should
hear the child-bishop preach in the cathedral annually. It
was required at York, and probably elsewhere, that the lad
chosen for this mock-dignity should be one who had served

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 21 5

well in the minster, who was sufficiently comely, and whose
voice was clear and unbroken. The boy chosen was duly
invested in all the proper vestments of a bishop, while a
number of his companions were suitably robed to attend
him as priests and deacons. The duration of his brief
" episcopate " is variously given ; according to some accounts
it commenced on Childermas Eve and terminated at the
second vespers of that festival, so that it lasted only for
about twenty-four hours ; elsewhere, however, it is said to
have begun on S. Nicholas' Day (Dec. 6th), and to have
ceased on Childermas Eve (Dec. 27th), so that it lasted in
this case for some three weeks. Probably the usage was not
uniform throughout the country. During the tenure of the
office, the boy-bishop performed all the functions of the
actual dignitary, holding a kind of visitation, singing vespers
and other offices, appointing (so it is alleged, at least at
Salisbury) to any prebend that fell vacant, and even
(incredible as it seems) singing some imitation of the mass.*
On December 7th, 1229 (the morrow of S. Nicholas), a
boy-bishop sang vespers in the presence of Edward I. at
Heton, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Thomas de Rotherham, Arch-
bishop of York, bequeathed a mitre of cloth-of-gold adorned
with silver to the "Barnes Bishop" in 148 1. A statute of
the Collegiate Church of S. Mary Overy, forbade the boy-

* Warton says that he performed all the ceremonies, ** the mass
excepted." The Computus of Hyde Abbey for 1327, however, contains
a disbursement for feasting the boy- bishop who had celebrated mass on
S. Nicholas* Day ; and Henry VHI.'s proclamation for the abolition of
the whole farce distinctly alleges that it was part of the usage for boys
to "singe masse and preache in the pulpitts." It seems, therefore,
certain that so far was the mock ceremonial carried that the child
actually sang some sort of **dry mass" ; for that he was ever suffered
to go further than that, it is perfectly impossible to believe.

2l6 IX)RE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

bishop to go in procession beyond the limits of his own
parish. The sermon of the boy-bishop preached at Gloucester
(Cathedral in 1558 is yet extant, and gives a painful picture
of the irreverence of the choristers ; we may feel sure that
in this, and all other cases, the sermon was composed for
the juvenile preacher by some one of the clergy of the
church.

This mock election, with all the attendant ceremonial,
was condemned by a council at Nice in 1274, and again at
a synod at Carnot in 1526; in England it was suppressed
by a proclamation issued by Henry VIII. in 1542. The
passage in that document which concerns this matter runs
as follows : " Whereas heretofore dyvers and many super-
stitious and chyldysh observances have been vsed, and yet
to this day are observed and kept, in many and sundry parts
of this realm, as upon saint Nicholas, saint Catherine, saint
Clement, the holy Innocents, and such like, children be
strangelie decked and apparayled to counterfeit priestes,
bishoppes, and women, and so be ledde with songes and
daunces from house to house, blessing the people and
gatheryng of money ; and boyes do singe masse and preach
in the pulpitt, with soche other vnfittinge and inconvenient
vsages, rather to the derysyon than any true glory of God,
or honor of his sayntes : The Kynge's maiestie therefore
myndinge nothinge so moche as to advance the true glorie
of God without vaine superstition, wylleth and commandeth
that from henceforth all svch superstitious obseruations be
left and clerely extinguished throwout his realme and
dominions, forasmvch as the same doth resemble rather the
vnlawfuU superstition of Gentilitie, than the pure and
sincere religion of Christe."

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 21 7

Whether the loss of such privileges as these rendered the
life of a chorister less attractive we cannot say, but it is
evident, from a manuscript now in the British Museum, that
in the reign of Elizabeth some difficulty was found in main-
taining the supply of boys suitable for the purpose. This is
a document authorizing the impressing of children to be
trained as choristers. The full text is as follows : —

**By the Queene, Elizabeth R.

** Whereas we have authorysed our servaunte Thomas Gyles, Mr. of
the children of the cathedrall churche of St. Paule, within our
cittie of London, to take upp suche apte and meete children as are
most fitt to be instructed and framed in the arte and science of
musicke and singinge as maye be had and found out within anie
place of this our realme of England or Wales, to be by his education
and bringinge up made meete and liable to serve us in that behalf
when our pleasure is to call for them.

** Wee therefore by the tenor of these presents will and require you
that you permit and suffer from henceforthe our saide servaunte
Thomas Gyles and his deputie or deputies, and every of them to
take up in anye cathedrall or collegiate churche or churches, and
in everye other place or places of this our realme of England and
Wales suche childe or children as he or they or anye of them shall
finde and like of, and the same childe or children by vertue hereof
for the use and service aforesaide with them or any of them, to
bring awaye withoute anye letts, con trad ictons, staye, or interrup-
tions to the contrarie, charginge, and commandinge you and everie
of you to be aydinge, helpinge, and assistinge to the above named
Thomas Gyles and his deputie and deputies in and aboute the due
execution of the premisses for the more speedie, effectuall, and
better accomplishing thereof from tyme to tyme, as you and everie
of you doe tendar our will and pleasure, and will answere for
doinge the contrarie at yor perilles.

*' Gouen under our signet at our Manor of Grenewich, the xxvith
daye of Aprill, in the xxviith yere of our reign.

**Toall and singular deanes, prouostes, maisters, and wardens of
collegies, and all ecclesiastical psons and mynisters, and to all
other our officers, mynisters, and subiects to whome in this case it
shall apperteyne, and to everye of them, greetinge."

2l8 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Coming to the part taken by the choir in the services
of the Church, we enter upon a subject which is so wide that
here it can only be touched upon. Historically it may be
said to stretch in an unbroken line from the organized
singers of the Tabernacle down to our own time ; while the
various forms which that organization has taken, for the
better rendering both of the vocal and instrumental music
of the sanctuary, provides numerous questions for
examination. Nor has controversy been excluded even
from a subject so essentially requiring harmony, and
calculated to promote it, as this. At different times and in
various places the lawfulness of the use of music at all has,
strange to say, been called in question ; the employment of
instrumental music was long considered of more than
questionable propriety by a large section of the extreme
Reformers ; and even among ourselves at the present day,
the rival claims of the ancient and dignified plain-song and
of the more varied music of the modern composers, are
sometimes argued, not without a certain amount of heat.

The antiphonal form of chanting, that is by the division
of the choir into two sections, which sing alternately in
answer one to the other, is unquestionably extremely
ancient ; and was probably derived by the Christian Church
from the earlier Jewish tradition. In large choirs, as in
cathedral and collegiate churches, it was (and indeed still is)
usual to divide the choristers into two bodies, sitting
respectively on the side of the dean, and of the precentor,
and hence called Decani and Cantoris, A yet more ancient
use, however, is said to have been for the whole body
of singers to be placed on one side of the chancel, the
officiant occupying the other ; and thus versicle and

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 219

response, antiphon and psalm, were sung alternately by them.
Usually once a week the side of the choir was changed,
that the higher clergy, who maintained their places, might
officiate in due order.

We cannot be too thankful that at the Reformation the
musical portions of our services were not interfered with
more than they were. For among the foreign Reformers,
some of whose opinions had sadly too much weight in
England, they were regarded with great suspicion ; and
indeed music generally was treated with singular contempt.
Bullinger and Gualter write from Zurich in 1566 to two
English bishops, Grindal and Horn, and express their
regret that " measured chanting in churches is to be
retained, . . . together with the sound of organs ; "
and the bishops, replying in the following year, say that they
will not " assert that [these things] are to be retained, but
we disapprove of it, as we ought to do." A letter to
Bullinger in 1566 reports that "the use of organs is
becoming more general in the churches ; " and another to
the same in 1567 informs him that "the Archbishop of
Canterbury (Cranmer) has caused an organ to be erected in
his metropolitan church at his own expense." This can
scarcely have been approved by Thomas Becon, Cranmer's
chaplain, who, in his " Jewel of Joy," declares music to be
" a more vain and trifling science than it becometh a man,
born and appointed to matters of gravity, to spend much
time about;" and again, "that music is not so excellent
a thing, that a Christian ought earnestly to rejoice in it."

In their efforts to discountenance music, and especially
instrumental music, as an adjunct to the solemnity of public
worship, the extreme men were put to the expedient of

220 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

explaining away such precedents as they could not deny
Scripture afforded. William Thorpe, in his examination
before Archbishop Arundel, maintained "that music and
minstrelsy, that David and other saints of the old law
spake of, ought now neither to be taken nor used by the
letter ; but these instruments, with their music, ought to be
interpreted ghostly." With such fanatics there was, of
course, no arguing.

In Scotland, as is well known, these sentiments for a long
time held sway, and organs are even now barely more than
tolerated in some of the Presbyterian kirks ; even the
singing of " Caralles '* was prohibited by Act of Parliament
in the northern kingdom ; although New Year's Eve is
still called Carol Ewyn in Perthshire, from the custom of
singing from door to door on that night.

In England carols of old were extremely popular, and
were sung in church at Christmas time, a custom that has
happily been largely revived of late. These were the
vernacular sacred songs, or hymns, of the people, and were
sung, not by the choir only, but by the whole congregation.
Formerly on Christmas Day, especially at evensong, sung,
as was universal till recently, in the afternoon, appropriate
carols often took the place of the psalms appointed for the
day. Nowhere, however, have carols had, and maintained,
a greater popularity than in the Isle of Man. There,
under the name of carvals^ they have long been sung by the
people in church on Oi^l Verrey, or Christmas Eve. A
crowded congregation assembled on this occasion, every
one bringing a candle for his own use, the multitude of
twinkling lights making a striking picture. Evensong having
been said, and a hymn sung, every one in turn, who knew a

THE CHANCEL AKD THE CHOIR. 221

<< carval," was at liberty to sing it ; and as these Manx carols
are some of them of great length, and there were many
vocalists forthcoming, the service frequently lasted until a
very late hour. The parish priest in the old times usually
left long before the conclusion, leaving the clerk in charge
of the people ; and then there was only too often a good
deal of horseplay and misbehaviour before the congregation
finally broke up. This service is still continued, but is now
kept within more reasonable limits ; and, under the personal
supervision of the clergy and led by the choir, has been
deprived of such elements in it as were open to objection.
In Wales choral services have also been from of old
extremely popular at Christmas, the usual time in the
Principality being early on the morning of the festival It
is probable that in both cases these services are a re-
collection of the midnight mass of the Nativity, once
universally offered throughout the country.

The use of metrical hjmins is very ancient in the Church,
some of the Latin compositions of the kind having as their
authors such early and honoured fathers as S. Hilary of
Poictiers, S. Gregory Nazianzen, Paulinus of Nola,
Prudentius, and S. Ambrose. The only ancient metrical
hjmin formally authorized by the English Church since the
Reformation is the " Veni, Creator Spiritus," which forms
part of the Ordinal This fine hymn is first found in the
works of Rabanus Maurus, who flourished about 847, and
has been variously assigned to S. Ambrose and Charlemagne.
We have, of course, no authorised Hymnary in the English
Church. The first attempt to provide something of the
kind was made by Thomas Stemhold, groom of the robes to
Henry VI H. and Edward VI., who turned into English

222 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

metre fifty-one of the Psalms ; a contemporary writer, John
Hopkins, versified another eighty-five, and the remaining
fourteen were similarly treated by other hands. This version,
commonly known as " Sternhold and Hopkins," came into
general favour for use in church, and continued so for about
a century. In 1696, however, appeared a rival version ;
this was the joint work of Nahum Tate, who had been
appointed poet-laureate in 1690, and of Dr. Nicholas Brady.
This book received a sort of quasi-authority, and was
commonly bound up with the Book of Common Prayer. It
speedily displaced Sternhold and Hopkins, and was used in
many churches until comparatively recent years ; nay, it is
even said yet to hold its place in one or two out-of-the-world
corners. Within the present century a multitude of
hymn-books have been compiled for the use of the Church,
in which translations of many of the mediaeval hymns, as
well as compositions of modern writers, are included ; and
these have ousted the metrical psalms. In this way a great
gain has been made in the way of useful, yet popular,
devotional literature ; and we avoid the monotony of singing
repeatedly in metre what has been already said or chanted in
the metrical prose of the Prayer-book Psalter. Even in the past
the need was occasionally felt for some hymns more suitable
for particular occasions than a metrical psalter could supply ;
and wonderful are the stories of the versified abominations
inflicted upon congregations by "poetical" parish clerks. The
arrangement and choice of the music was in those days left
almost, or quite, entirely in the hands of that functionary, who
from his place in the ** three-decker," announced the hymns
according to the following quaint, but not inappropriate,
formula, " Let us sing to the praise and glory of God

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 223

psalm * so-and-so.' " An example of the home-made verse
perpetrated by some of these worthy men will perhaps be
interesting ; there are several that might be quoted, but
they usually lack the verifying details of date and place.
The following, however, was sung in Osmotherly Church,
Yorkshire, during a cattle-plague in 1747. There are eight
stanzas, the first four of which describe the deceased cattle,
and express sympathy with their owners, whose names are
given ; then follow these sublime lines : —

*' No Christian's bull nor cow, they say
But takes it out of hand ;
And we shall have no cows at all,
I doubt, within this land.

" The doctors, though they all have spoke
Like learned gentlemen.
And told us how the entrails look
Of cattle dead and green ;

** Yet they do nothing do at all.
With all their learning's store ;
So Heaven drive out this plague away
And vex us not no more."

Strictly speaking the consideration of the psalmody of the
period here alluded to, does not belong to a chapter on the
chancel ; as at that time the choristers, assisted by a little
orchestra of amateur musicians, usually occupied a western
gallery. With the inauguration of organs almost everywhere,
the old parish orchestra has died out ; a fact which one
cannot regard without some regret. Some effort might
surely have been made to blend the new and the old, to
preserve the fiddles and bassoons as allies of the organ.
The company of minstrels to accompany the music of the
divine offices is, in fact, an ancient institution, worthy of
preservation from its long tradition, as well as for its own

224 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

sake. A gallery for its accommodation was often erected ; at
York and at Chichester there was such a loft above the
reredos, at other places the minstrels were sometimes placed
in the rood-loft ; the north side of the nave was elsewhere
found the most convenient situation, and a gallery, built
there for this purpose, exists at Wells and at Exeter, and in
several foreign cathedrals. At S. Mary's, Beverley, is a
pillar in the nave, usually called " the Minstrels' Pillar," from
the fact that the capital is carved with the figures of five
musicians playing respectively on the harp, lute, treble and
bass flute, and tabor ; while in I^tin the inscription runs
beneath, " Pray for the souls of the players." As a sample
of the constitution of the parish orchestra of modern times,
it may be mentioned that at Crowle, Lincolnshire, at the
date of its supercession by an organ in 1847, the band
consisted of two fiddles, a double bass, a flute, a clarionette,
and a bassoon.

The organ has also a venerable antiquity, and is mentioned
as existing in England as early as the year 700 ; and many
of our large churches had more than one, in different parts
of the church. The custom, till lately common, of placing
the organ on the rood-screen began only at the Restoration,
when the wholesale destruction of the Puritan era necessi-
tated the rebuilding of instruments in most of the cathedrals.
It is now giving way to a method of arrangement, far
preferable both from its appearance and its musical effect, by
which the organ is divided, and placed above the stalls, on
either side of the chancel. The development and use of
this king of musical instruments, to be fairly treated, would
require at least some chapters ; we must therefore pass on.

Against the east wall of the church in most cases stands

thf: chancel and the choir. 225

the altar ; although in cathedrals a chapel, usually the Lady
Chapel, lies eastward of the high altar. In bygone days,
however, the altar did not usually stand absolutely against
the wall as is now usual, but at the distance of a few feet
from it. This is illustrated by a charm for fits, in vogue
in Devonshire and Cornwall ; the sufferer was directed to
enter the church at midnight, and walk thrice around the
altar. In the majority of churches this would now be
impossible.

Another form of the charm, a variant introduced perhaps
since the performance of the above perambulation has
become difficult, is to walk thrice around the church at the
same ghostly hour, and then to enter and stand before the
altar. This is said to have been tried at least once in
Crowan Church, Cornwall, with disastrous results. A young
man, having performed the first part of the charm, was feeling
his way up the church in the darkness, when he placed his
hand upon a human head ! With a piercing shriek he fainted,
and only recovered to be taken, a hopeless lunatic, to the
asylum, where he died. The head was, as a matter of fact,
that of the sexton, who in all kind-heartedness had come in
to protect the midnight walker from being alarmed by any
practical jokes.

The sanctity of the altar is invoked as a cure in other
ways. A piece of a candle that has burned on the altar of
the parish church of S. Blazey (dedicated to S. Blaize), Corn-
wall, if applied to a tooth or to the throat, is locally supposed
to be an effectual cure for any pain in those members ; and
diseases in cattle yield to the same remedy. " Sacrament
wine," that is wine of the same kind, or drawn from the same
stock, as that offered in the Holy Eucharist, has also had

15

226 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

specially curative properties ascribed to it ; but whether this
arises from any fancied virtue which it derives from its very
remote connection with the Blessed Sacrament, or whether
it is only that country clergy have sometimes used a similar
wine for the altar and for giving to the sick poor, it is not
very easy to determine ; perhaps both these ideas are com-
bined in the belief.

At S. John's College, Hurstpierpoint, there is an alleged
omen of death in the house, which is interesting from the
fact that the belief in it must be of very recent growth, the
college having been founded only in 1851. A robin is said
to fly into the college chapel, and to alight upon the altar and
sing there, previously to anyone in the institution dying.
For such an idea to have arisen within the last half-century,
it would seem that so singular a circumstance must at any
rate have happened two or three times within that period ;
a fact which in itself is curious.

At S. Ives, Huntingdon, there is a custom still in use,
which originally involved a strange and irreverent employ-
ment of the altar. A certain Dr. Robert Wilde, dying ih
1678, bequeathed to the parish the sum of ;^5o, which was
to be invested, and the income expended as follows ; once
a year a sermon on the value and use of Holy Scripture was
to be preached by the vicar, who was to receive los. for
doing so ; after this, six boys and six girls, chosen from the
parishioners, were to go up to the altar, and thereon cast
three dice each, the six who succeeded in throwing the
highest number being awarded Bibles, the cost of each
copy not to exceed 7s. 6d. The requirements of the doctor's
will are still observed, save that a small table, placed at the
chancel step, is now used for the dice-throwing ; and the

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 227

desecration of the altar is avoided. The money was invested
in a parcel of land, now known as " Bible Orchard."

The practice of making a reverence towards the altar on
entering and leaving church, — a usage stigmatised as super-
stitious, popish, idolatrous by certain critics of the Church —
is not only ancient, but has been observed continuously in
very many parts of England : its now not uncommon use
cannot strictly be called a revival, since it has never ceased.

Amongst the older regulations on the subject, we may
note one of the statutes of Lincoln Minster, dating from
1440, whereby the vicars, who had been in the habit of
running heedlessly and irreverently about the choir, were
bidden to bow to the altar at every entrance and egress.
Laud, in his revised statutes of Canterbury, required a
similar act of reverence ; and it seems to have been observed
as an unbroken tradition at S. George's Chapel, Windsor,
Christ Church, Oxford, and in Durham Cathedral. In
1635, Mainwaring, Dean of Worcester, reproved the king's
scholars there for coming into the cathedral tumultuously ;
and ordered that they should enter two and two in an
orderly manner, and make their due obeisance. A canon
of the synod of 1640 was concerned with this practice, of
which it speaks as follows : — " We heartily commend it to
all good and well-affected people, that they be ready to
tender to the Lord their reverence and obeisance, both at
their coming in and going out of church, according to the
most ancient custom of the primitive Church in the purest
times.''

It is in country parishes and in quiet old-world spots that
we must look, however, for the most part for instances of
the continuance of this usage. The Manxmen observed it

228 IX)RE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

regularly until quite recent times, and Bishop Wilson tells
us that, on his going to the island, he was requested by
Archdeacon Hewestone to l)e careful *' to make obeisance at
coming into and going out of church, and at going up and
coining down from the altar ; all ancient, commendable and
devout usages which thousands of good people of our
Church practice at this day.'' Similarly in English villages
the practice has in many cases only decayed amid the
general carelessness of the present century. Not more
than sixty years ago, so it is said, the custom was universal
among the Lincolnshire rustics of Kirton-in-Lindsey for the
men to pull their forelocks and for the women to curtsy on
entering and on leaving church ; and the same is related of
many parishes.

Among the modern additions to the furniture of the
chancel must he counted the altar-rails. Originally, as we
have seen in a passage quoted early in this chapter, the laity
communicated outside the choir ; the altar therefore needed
no protection beyond the chancel-screen. When, however,
the Reformers pulled down these screens, and the Puritans
began to drag the altars into the midst of the chancel, or of
the church, placing them table-wise, it became necessary
to provide some new form of protection. In the time of
Hishop Andrewes, therefore, the use of altar-rails began,
that saintly prelate referring to them under the name of
** wainscot banisters." They did not, however, become
general until the days of Laud, who insisted upon the
altars being replaced altar-wise, and being fenced about to
prevent their being irreverently used. As the employment
of this railing was a visible assertion of the sanctity of the
altar and of its mysteries, the Puritans detested it ; and the

THE CHANCEL AND THE CHOIR. 229

journal of William Dowsing, the Parliamentary visitor of
churches during the Great Rebellion, shows that he had it
pulled down wherever met with. In some churches, at the
time of the offering of the Holy Eucharist, this rail is covered
with a linen cloth, a relic, or revival, of the " houselling-
cloth," which communicants held beneath the chin to catch
any fragment of the Blessed Sacranrient which might fall.
Among churches where this ancient custom still prevails are
S. German's, Wimborne, Leamington Priory, and Hensall,
in Yorkshire.

CHAPTER XL

^fm6 Anb Offeringe.

FROM apostolic times it has been customary for the
Church to act, to a great extent, as the almoner of
her people; collecting their contributions and distributing
them, usually in three ways — for the poor, the fabric of the
churches, and the support of the clergy. Opportunity was
also given from very early days for the faithful to exercise
their charity in giving alms in connection with the public
services of the Church. To some such custom S. Paul
alludes, when he writes to the Corinthians (i Cor. xvi., 2),
" Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by
him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no
gatherings when I come." S. Chrysostom also refers to a
practice, whereby the deserving poor were encouraged to
stand at the church-door to receive alms from those who
entered. " Therefore the poor stand before the doors of the
church," says he, "that no one should go in empty, but
enter securely with charity for his companion : you go into
church to obtain mercy, first show mercy ; make God your
debtor, and then you may ask of Him, and receive with
usury : we are not heard barely for the lifting up of our
hands ; stretch forth your hands not only to heaven, but
also to the hands of the poor."

The offerings of the people in those primitive times were
very various ; as they often are now in missionary stations in

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 23 1

barbarous lands. But not all gifts might be brought to
the altar for solemn presentation. Bread and wine for
use in the Eucharist were so offered ; the first-fruits of
corn and grapes, as representative of all other first-fruits,
and oil and incense for the services of the Church, these
also might be laid upon the altar, but not at the time of
the Eucharist. Money does not appear to have been re-
cognized for some time among the offerings which were
to be formally received and presented.

The old name of the feast of S. Peter's Chains, on
August I St — Lammas Day — recalls some of the gifts in kind
anciently made in the English Church. This word has
been variously interpreted as meaning Lamb-mass and
Loaf-mass. In connection with the former the Welsh name
is quoted, which is Dydd degwm wyn, or lamb-tithing day ;
and there is also instanced an old usage at York. It is
alleged that the tenants of the Chapter of York, whose
minster is dedicated in the name of S. Peter ad Vincula,
had on this festival to bring a live lamb into the church
during the celebration of High Mass, and to present it at
the altar. There is, however, far stronger evidence on behalf
of the other derivation. King Alfred in his translation of
Orosius renders the Kalends of August by " Hlaf-Maesse " ;
and, as if to supply the connecting link between that form of
the word and the more modern one, the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, under the date of 921, speaks of this festival as
^^ hlam-maesser It is obvious, therefore, that Loaf-mass is
the original word ; and this has been further explained by
the use of Festum primitiarum, or feast of first-fruits, as an
equivalent Latin term : and it is said that a loaf, made from
the newly-harvested wheat, was on this day presented at the

232 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

altar as an act of thanksgiving. It was a day far more
considered of old than in recent times; and ancient
chroniclers frequently date events as happening at Lammas-
tide. Robert of Gloucester says, of King Edmund, that
"y« lam masse afterward he spousede y« queue " ; the Saxon
Chronicle reports that William Rufus was slain on the
morrow after Lammas Day; and one of the ballads of
Chevy Chase, fought on the eve of that festival in 1388,
begins —

** It fell out about the Lammas tide
When yeomen win the hay,
The doughty Douglas gan to ride
In England to take a prey. "

The offering of the lamb at York leads us on to other
animal oblations. In Carnarvonshire there was, in
Pennant's days, a curious usage, which was not wholly
extinct half a century since. On Trinity Sunday the people
of the neighbourhood brought to the church of Clynnok
Vaur, as they had formerly done to the monastery there, all
such calves and lambs as had been born that spring with
a certain birth-mark on the ear, known as Nod Beuno^ or S.
Beuno's mark. These the churchwardens received and
sold ; the money being applied to the relief of the poor,
or the repair of the fabric of the church. Until expended
the proceeds of the sale were kept in Gyff S. Beuno^ or
S. Beuno's Chest, a massive coffer hewn from a log of oak,
and secured with three locks ; whence any difficult matter is
locally compared to " breaking open S. Beuno's Chest."

On S. Agnes' Day two lambs are solemnly blessed at the
church of that saint at Rome, being carried on cushions to
the altar ; and from the fleeces of these are subsequently

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 233

woven the woollen pallia given to the archbishops of the
Roman obedience.

There were other similar cases in mediaeval England ; the
offering of the animal being not seldom, as at York, a form
of land tenure. A white bull was annually presented at the
abbey in Bury S. Edmund's ; and the fishermen of the
Thames offered a salmon at the altar of Westminster Abbey.
At S. Paul's from the reign of Edward I. to that of
Elizabeth a doe was presented to the dean and chapter,
and solemnly received by them at the choir steps, on the
feast of the Conversion of S. Paul ; and similarly a fat buck
was brought thither in the summer. This was done in
accordance with a bequest of one of the family of Le Baud,
some of whose descendants and their retainers were com-
monly present at the ceremony. The manor of Raby was
held of the Chapter of Durham by the Nevilles for the service
of a stag presented at the cathedral on S. Cuthbert's Day.

After the battle of Neville's Cross the victors offered the
spoils of the Scots, the banners, jewels, and, above all, the
famous Black Rood of Scotland, at the high altar of
Durham Cathedral. The tattered banners of our regiments
are still often delivered to the custody of the Church by
which they were originally blessed ; and on their reception
they are placed first upon the altar, and then hung some-
where within the walls, of a church connected in some way
with the regiment.

A rather frightful, certainly unchristian, oblation was the
Welsh Offrwm Gelyn^ the offering of one's enemies. In this
weird rite a man, imagining himself injured or aggrieved,
went to a church dedicated in the name of some famous
and powerful saint ; and there, kneeling upon his bare

234 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

knees, and first propitiating the saint with an ofiering of
money, he called down every conceivable malediction upon
the head of his supposed enemy, his family, possessions, and
descendants. The classic Greeks had a custom almost
precisely similar.

In treating of curious offerings, the royal oblations and
gifts at Epiphany and on Maundy Thursday must not be
forgotten.

In commemoration of the gifts of the Magi to the In&nt
Saviour it has long been the practice for the English
sovereign jxirsonally or by deputy to make an offering at the
altar of the Chapel Royal, S. James's, of gold, incense, and
myrrh. The three gifts are enclosed in bags or purses of
white kid placed within a crimson velvet box. In 1731
the Gentieman's Magazine records that " the king and the
prince (Oeorge II. and Frederic, Prince of Wales) made the
offerings at the altar of gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
according to custom." This usage is said to have lasted
for nearly eight hundred years, and the sovereign himself
made the offering in person down to the middle of the last
century. On these occasions the king advanced to the altar
in great state, preceded by heralds and pursuivants, and by
the sword of state, and accompanied by the Knights of the
(Jarter, the Thistle, and the Bath, all arrayed in the collars
of their respective orders. In the year 1758, however, the
(ive of the ICpiphany found the royal family of England in
great sorrow, as on that day took place the funeral of the
J'rincess Oroline ; (jeorge III. therefore deputed the Lord
ilif^li Chaml)erlain (at that time the Duke of Devonshire)
to make the offerings in his stead on the morrow. Since
then the sovereign has not again appeared in person at the

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 235

ceremony ; and now two Gentleman Ushers of the House-
hold act as the royal deputies. The offerings themselves
also declined within recent times, and became merely paltry
amounts of myrrh and incense, and a trumpery roll of gold-
leaf. In i860, at the suggestion of the late Prince Consort,
twenty-five sovereigns were substituted for the last gift ; and
these are afterwards distributed to the deserving poor of the
neighbouring parishes. The function is therefore now not
only an interesting survival, but one that is practically useful.
A similar practice obtains at the court of Spain.

The Maundy gifts form the only surviving part of a much
fuller ceremonial, in which the sovereign, in imitation of the
humility of Christ, washed the feet of a number of poor folk,
and then presented them with alms, and provided for them
a meal. James II. was the last English king who personally
performed this office, though for fully half a century later it
was executed for the sovereign by a deputy. In 1731 the
Archbishop of York, as Lord High Almoner, performed the
duty. As, however, in any case the feet-washing and the
dinner took place in one of the royal halls, and not, of
course, within the Chapel Royal, they lie outside our limits.
The donation of money is still continued, and forms part of
a religious ceremony. The Chapel Royal, Whitehall, is
used for the service, which, in its devotional aspect, consists
mainly of prayers for the welfare of the sovereign, and of
anthems, usually dwelling upon the blessedness of charity.
At intervals in the service the several gifts are distributed,
consisting of shoes and stockings, woollen and linen cloth,
and money. This last is given to each recipient in two
purses of red and white respectively. The red purse
contains a sovereign, and since 1838 has also held a second

236 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

sovereign and a half-sovereign in lieu of the banquet
formerly provided, to which was added a certain amount of
food, which each was allowed to carry away. The white
purse contains the Maundy money proper, consisting of as
many pence as there are years in the sovereign's life, the
sum being made up of silver pieces valuing 4d., 3d., 2d.,
and id. These coins are struck at the Mint specially for
this purpose, but the 3d. piece of ordinary currency is
practically the same as the Maundy coin of that value.
The others, being necessarily somewhat rarely met with, are
frequently exchanged afterwards by their recipients for
ordinary coins at a considerable advance in value.

Maundy gifts of the several kinds above mentioned, and
graduated according to the age of the donor, were not of
old limited exclusively to royalty ; for the Household Book
of the Duke of Northumberland, in the early part of the
sixteenth century, contains a list of similar gifts presented by
him to poor folk on Maundy Thursday ; and the practice is
spoken of as if of long standing.

The only place in the Book of Common Prayer at which
it is ordered that alms should be collected from the
congregation in general, is in the office for the Holy
Eucharist ; though in the course of the " Visitation of the
Sick," we read, " The Minister shall not omit earnestly to
move such sick persons as are of ability to be liberal to the
poor;" and again, "the woman that cometh to give her
thanks," that is, to be Churched, " must offer accustomed
offerings." The rubrics in the Communion service are two,
as follows : " Then shall the Priest return to the Lord's
Table and begin the offertory, saying one or more of these
sentences following, as he thinketh most convenient in his

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 237

discretion;" "Whilst these sentences are in reading, the
Deacons, Churchwardens, or other fit person appointed for
that purpose, shall receive the alms for the poor, and
other devotions of the people, in a decent bason to be
provided by the parish for that purpose ; and reverently
bring it to the priest, who shall humbly present and place it
upon the Holy Table."

The use of the word " Offertory " in the former of these
rubrics has been misunderstood, and has of recent years led
to its misuse. It has in some way got to be considered the
" correct " name for the alms, which it is not, nor ever was.
In its widest sense the Offertorium^ or offertory, is all that
portion of the Eucharistic office which centres round the
act of solemnly offering the elements previous to their
consecration ; it begins with the " sentences," in the
English rite, and ends with the Preface before the Sanctus.
Two other derived meanings of the same word are, first, an
anthem anciently sung during the collection of the alms and
oblations of the faithful ; and, second, a silken napkin, akin
to the more modern humeral veil, in which the deacon
enveloped the chalice when offered to him by the priest.
There is no authority for using the word as equivalent to
the thing, or things, offered by the congregation.

The custom of committing the collection of the alms to
the deacons is very ancient, but has necessarily dropt out of
use with us, from the fact that there is so seldom one, and
extremely rarely more than one, present at a service in an
ordinary parish church. In the days when the diaconate
was in many cases a permanent office, and when large
churches, as in the primitive Church, had seven or more
attached to them, it was, of course, very different.

238 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The basin, or dish, in which the alms are collected for
presentation on the altar is often very handsome. At S.
Margaret's, Westminster, are examples in latten of Flemish
manufacture ; and an ancient one in the Norfolk and
Norwich Museum has a representation of the Annunciation
in the centre ; that also now used at S. Paul's is very large,
and is similarly enriched with a copy of Rafifaelle's cartoon
of S. Paul preaching at Athens. A good many now in use
bear the names of their donors, and the date of the gift ;
but very few really old ones have survived to modern times.
Wooden boxes, instead of basins, were at one time in
common use, and some of those still in existence are
supposed to date from the sixteenth century. Among these
ancient specimens are boxes at Beckenham and at Blyth-
borough. At Blickling, Norfolk, is a quaint box, shaped
like a heart, and bearing the inscription " Pray Remember
the Pore. 92." The date probably stands for 1592. The
popular modern method of collection is by bags; these
being subsequently placed in the large alms-dish for actual
presentation. The Ritual Commission of 1870 proposed
implicitly to recognise this usage by altering the rubric, so
that the latter part should read, " — and reverently bring
them to the Priest, who shall humbly present and place
them upon the Holy Table in a decent bason to be
provided for that purpose."

In some districts special virtue is ascribed to the coins
that have thus been offered to God upon His altar. A
** sacrament shilling " is in many places considered an
effective talisman for the cure of epilepsy. In Wales the
method of procedure is simple ; a hint having been given as
to the rcc(uirement, usually through some third person, a

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 239

shilling from the alms offered at the Eucharist must be
given, without direct solicitation, to the person afflicted,
who must receive it without thanks. From this coin a silver
ring is made, and worn day and night. As recently as
1882 this charm was used at Efenechtyd, and also within
the last few years at Rhosymedre. In Shropshire a rather
more elaborate ceremonial has to be observed. Twelve
pennies must be collected from twelve unmarried men if the
patient be a woman, from the like number of maidens if it
be a man ; and these are exchanged for the " sacrament
shilling." The ring made from this coin may then be worn
on the finger, or suspended about the neck ; some authori-
ties say further that benefit will accrue if it be rubbed upon
the eye. According to the custom of another locality in
the same county, the sum needful is three shillings, which
must be obtained in the above manner from three several
churches, the donors meanwhile knowing nothing of the
purpose to which the money is to be put. In Cornwall the
same superstition obtains, but in that county thirty pennies
must be subscribed by that number of persons of the
opposite sex to that of the epileptic sufferer, who stands at
the church door to receive them. In Herefordshire and
Wiltshire the smaller coin, the shilling, is the one pre-
scribed; and in the latter county application for one was
made in 1874. In the Times of March 7th, 1854, is an
account of the use of a similar charm in Devonshire ; and
although the exchange for "Sacrament money" seems to
have been omitted on that occasion, we may fairly suppose
that the scene described was a survival of the usage of
which we are writing. "A young woman, living in the
neighbourhood of Halsworthy, North Devon," so runs the

240 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGUSH CHURCH.

Times paragraph, *' having for some time past been subject
to periodical fits of illness, endeavoured to effect a cure by
attendance at the afternoon service at the parish church,
accompanied by thirty young men, her near neighbours.
Service over, she sat in the porch of the church, and each
of the young men as they passed out in succession, dropped
a penny into her lap ; but the last, instead of a penny, gave
her half-a-crown, taking from her the twenty-nine pennies.
With this half-crown in hand she walked three times round
the communion-table, and afterwards had it made into a
ring, by the wearing of which she believed she would
recover her health." According to some authorities the
ring for this curative purpose should be made by simply
cutting the centre from the coin, and wearing the flat circle
which is left. This superstition has been met with in
comparatively recent times, besides in ihe districts already
noticed, in the Forest of Dean, in North Yorkshire, and in
Durham.

In past times alms were collected, or at any rate church
funds were used, for purposes which would now seem very
strange. Among the most remarkable instances are some
entries in the churchwardens' account for some Staffordshire
parishes. At Wolverhampton, in the year 1555, we find
an entry, among the items of expenditure, of " Charities to
a gibbet beyond Bilston ; " and at S. Leonard's, Bilston, are
two as follows : —

** 1692. Kor setting up ye Gibbett, 2s. 6d."
** 1 701. For repairing ye (iibbett, is. lod."

A patent was issued by Charles I., dated 22nd September,
1641, authorizing collections in various specified places

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 24 1

for the repairing of Grimsby harbour. This document sets
forth that the king has been informed that " the Towne of
Great Grimsby is a haven Towne having a very commodious
roade stead for the anchorage and relieving of Shipps uppon
Stormes and contrary winds ; " but that " now our said
Towne is fallen into great decay and poverty for want
of trading and principally occasioned by the silting and
warping upp of the Haven there, soe now a shipp of small
burthen without great difficulty cannot come to the Towne
bridge where a shipp of three or four hundred tons might
formerly have floated." In consequence of this, authority is
given to " the Maior and Burgesses of our borough of
Great Grimsby aforesaid and their deputy and deputies the
bearer or bearers hereof, ... to aske, gather, receive, and
take the almes and charitable benevolence of all our loving
subjects whatsoever inhabiting within our Citties of London
and Westminster, the suburbs and libties of them both, and
in our Counties of Lincolne, Yorke, Norfolke, Suffolke,
Essex, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and Middlesex : our Cities of
Lincolne, Yorke, Norwich, Canterbury, Rochester, with the
Cinque ports : our Citty of Chichester, and borough of
Southwarke, the counties, lib'ties, and p'cincts of and within
the same Citties, and in all Citties, townes corporate,
privileged places, parishes, villages, and in all other places
whatsoever within our said counties, and not elsewhere, for
and towards the repair of their said haven, and to noe other
use, interest, or purpose whatsoever." Owing probably to the
dislocation of all things consequent upon the outbreak of the
Civil War, no action seems to have been taken on the
authority of this patent until after the Restoration ; in 1663,
however, entries occur in several churchwardens' accounts

16

242 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

showing that contributions were made towards the object
here defined.

Allusion has been made in a former chapter to the
briefs or patents, such as the foregoing, which have since
the Reformation been issued by the Crown, authorizing
collections for various objects, just as before that time they
were issued by the pope. The number of these was
considerable, as is shown by notices of alms collected under
their authority inserted in parochial records. To cite one
instance; in the little parish of Hagworthingham, in
Lincolnshire, between June, 1661, and July, 1667, or in the
course qf six years, no less than sixty-three briefs were
received and responded to. They came, therefore, almost
once a month. The majority were for the repair of
churches — for which, no doubt, there were unusually
urgent and frequent calls at that time, immediately after the
Puritan regimd of the Commonwealth — and for the relief of
sufferers from fire. Some, however, are for other purposes.
The brief on behalf of Grimsby Haven produced at
Hagworthingham the sum of 2s. ; towards the repair of
Thrapston Bridge, Northamptonshire, 3s. 2d. was contri-
buted ; several sums were raised " for relief of poor visited
people" in the plague year, 1665 ; and in some cases the
name of the person or place assisted is entered alone,
without further explanation. The experience of this parish
may be taken as a sample of the rest, to which came appeals
for help from far and near ; as they came to Hagworthingham
not from its own county only, or from neighbouring ones,
but from places as distant as Tynemouth, in Northumberland,
and Milton Abbas in Dorset, from Pool in Montgomeryshire,
and Cromer in Norfolk.

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 243

The need for appealing to the charity of our congregations
for these causes has in many cases passed away, the State
having assumed the responsibility of preserving its bridges,
harbours, gallows, and other such things. Happily, too, the
necessity of collecting alms for such a cause as the following
has ceased ; although the distresses of foreigners, as well as
of fellow-citizens, are still frequently remembered. Under
the date March, 1670, there is an entry in the accounts of
Holy Cross, Westgate, Canterbury, recording a contribution
of ;^2 7s. 4d. for "Redeeming the captives in Turkye."

Doles, although they had their origin in the custom of
distributing food to the poor at the time of a funeral, scarcely
come within our scope, since they are as a rule distributed
elsewhere than in the church. A certain number of them,
however, were founded, usually by the last will of their
donors, with the pious intention of promoting regular
attendance at divine service ; and these are generally
distributed at the conclusion of the chief service on Sunday
morning. While admitting the good intentions of the
donors of such charities, one cannot help questioning the
soundness of their judgment, in thus offering the inducement
of mercenary motives for the performance of a religious
duty. Several London churches have ancient doles of this
nature, a number of loaves of bread, or a certain sum of
money, being distributed weekly among a given number of
the aged poor who are present at church. It is a rare thing
to find a new endowment of this kind ; one such is,
however, recorded on a tablet in the parish church of
S. Michael, Derby. We learn there that the late James
Francis King left by will within very recent years the sum of
;^i,ooo to the parish, the interest of which is partly to be

244 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

expended in the purchase of twenty loaves of good bread, at
sixpence each, to be given after the service each Sunday
morning to as many poor parishioners ; the remainder of the
income is to be devoted to keeping the church in good order
and repair. It was ordained also by the will that the dole
thus founded should bear the quaint name of "King's
Sympathy."

The parish of Paddington received a bequest long since
from two maiden ladies, the proceeds of which were to be
spent in bread, cheese, and beer, for the refreshment of the
parishioners on the Sunday before Christmas Day. The
bread used to be thrown from the steeple, and scrambled
for in the churchyard ; and it is said that some portion of it
was even so treated within the present century. Neither the
manners of the people, nor their bread, were likely to be
improved by the practice.

The mortuary^ or legacy to the Church at the funeral of
some person of note, can scarcely, perhaps, be called an
instance of alms, since it was insisted upon as a right ; yet
in its origin it was accounted such, since it was supposed to
be in place of any tithes, or other obligations, which had
been omitted during the life-time of the deceased. Several
synods issued canons concerning these mortuaries, of which
the following, forming one of the statutes of the see of
Sodor, in 1 239, is among the most explicit : — " In mortuaries
let the best animal be given to the Church, whether it be a
cow, an ox, or a horse, if it be the value of six shillings or
l(!ss ; also as far as relates to clothes, it shall be at the option
of the Oluirch whether to receive the clothes or three
shillings and sixpence : and if he be a poor man, and pay no
mortuary, let the clothes be taken as they are, and also

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 245

every fifth penny of his personal property, after the payment
of his debts : when a man pays a mortuary, let the priest
have his shoes and boots to the value of sixpence, and his
hood, hat, or cap, which he used on Christmas Day : also
let him have his shirt, girdle, purse, and knife, each to the
value of one penny." The Constitutions of Giles de Brid-
port. Bishop of Salisbury, dated 1256, do not make quite
such large demands. " The parson or vicar, upon the death
of any landowner, shall receive the next best of his cattle
after that given to the feudal lord ; and if there should not
be several cattle, the executors are bound to satisfy the
parson from the goods of the deceased, before they
administer his will." Among the grievances of which the
House of Commons complained in 1530 were "the extreme
exaction which the spiritual men used in taking corpse-
presents or mortuaries."

The making of these offerings, which was often done
openly in the church at the funeral, led to some strange and
striking scenes. The body of Hatfield, Bishop of Durham
from 1345 to 1382, was borne to the choir door in the
cathedral on a chariot drawn by five horses, which sub-
sequently became the property of the abbey ; four horses
drew the body of Longley, bishop of the same see from
1406 to 1438 into the nave, these also forming a mortuary
offering to the chapter. At the obsequies of King Henry
v., his three war-horses were led up to the altar, and
formally presented to the church. At the funeral of
Prince Arthur, according to Leland's account, "Lord
Garrard, the prince's man-at-arms, in the prince's own
harness, on a courser richly trapped with velvet em-
broidered with needlework, rode into the midst of the

246 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

choir of Worcester, with a pole-axe in his hands, the
point downwards, where the Abbot of Tewkesbury, the
gospeller of that mass, received the offering of that horse."
The war-horses thus presented to the peaceful occupants of
cloisters and parsonages were usually afterwards redeemed
by the donors for an equivalent number of sheep. Church
hangings and vestments were made from the hearse-cloths
and costly trappings. The great wax torches, given
sometimes in great numbers on such occasions, as at
Henry V.'s funeral, when a thousand of them blazed within
the choir, were easily turned to the ordinary use of the
church. The offering of mortuaries was abolished by
Henry VHI.

The gifts made at the shrines of famous saints within the
cathedrals and abbeys of the country were often remarkable
both in number and in value. The offerings in money at
the shrine of S. Hugh at Lincoln reached in 1365 the sum
of ;^37 14s. 8d., a large amount when we remember the
difference in the purchasing power of money between the
fourteenth century and our own.* But many gifts were
made in kind. The head of S. Hugh, placed in a separate
shrine, had a mitre of silver, and about the reliquary which
contained it were rings set with precious stones, old gold
coins, branches of coral, and other valuable offerings from

* It will illustrate the practical value of this sum to compare with it
the terms of a statute passed in 1414 (2 Henry V.), whereby it is
ordained that ** No yearly chaplain shall take more for his whole wages
by year (that is to say, for his board, apparel, and other necessaries)
but VII. Marks." Taking the mark at its value of 13s. 4d., the
chaplain's income would amount to £4 13s. 4d. Hence the offerings
at S. Hugh's shrine were equal to the statutory income of eight
chaplains ; they would probably be worth at least £7S^ i"^ modem
values.

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 247

the devout pilgrims. At Canterbury, the shrine of S.
Thomas is described as " blazing with gold and jewels, and
embossed with innumerable pearls, and jewels, and rings."
Henry VIII., on visiting the shrine of Our Lady of
Walsingham, gave a massive chain of gold for the adorn-
ment of the statue ; and Erasmus tells us that that shrine
looked like "the mansion of the saints, so much did it
glitter with gold, jewels, and silver on all sides." These are
but samples of the lavish way in which mediaeval English-
men devoted their money and valuable possessions to the
enrichment and adornment of the churches. So great was
the accumulated wealth in many abbeys, that a special
watch ing-chamber was erected within the church, whence
continual watch could be kept over the treasures of the
place by a succession of monks.

With all their caution, however, the monks were not
always able to defend the shrines from the depredations of
villains, who ** feared not God nor regarded man ; " and
then occasionally the saints put forth their wondrous
powers, and themselves avenged the violation of their resting-
places. Such a miracle once happened at Durham, as the
chronicler Simeon tells us. It was in the days when
Egelwine ruled the see (1056-107 1), that a noble pilgrim to
the sacred relics of S. Cuthbert brought in his retinue a
varlet, whose greedy heart recked more of gold than of
godliness. The mass of money left by recent visitors at the
shrine, and still lying in shining heaps upon it, set this
man's eyes a-twinkling, and he longed to slip into his
leathern pouch some of the silver pieces. Presently he
drew near amid the throng, and saw the people all in turn
stoop and kiss the cold marble beneath which lay the

248 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

remains of so much saintliness. The Tempter, ever at the
elbow of the children of men, even when they stand between
the altar of God and the tombs of the Blessed, whispered in
his ear to do likewise, and at the same time to help himself.
Right humbly did the hypocrite bow him at the shrine, and
long and fervently did he press his wicked lips to the
marble ; but it was nothing but a Judas-kiss which he gave,
for money, and not for devotion. Rising up, he turned to
move away with four or five silver pennies, reft from the
blessed S. Cuthbert, in his mouth ; and no one had noted
aught of his evil deed. But presently that ill-gotten store of
coins began to glow within his mouth, as if they were
heating in a furnace ; fain would the wretch have slipt them
into his wallet, nay gladly would he even, have spat them
out upon the floor in the sight of all men ; for they grew
ever hotter, and the torment was intolerable. But his jaws
clave to each other, as if they had been locked ; and strive
as he would, he could not open them. Thus was he driven
to rush madly through the throng of wonder-stricken folk,
waving on high his hands which clutched and snatched at
the air, and groaning, like the ox that goes to the slaughter,
with wild inarticulate bellowings. At last he betakes him
again to the shrine, and flinging him down beside it, asks in
his heart for the pardon of his crime, and for the tender
pity of the blessed S. Cuthbert ; and lo ! his lips open, and
forth therefrom roll out the coins ; and he is at once whole
and well again. So mightily, if the chroniclers say sooth,
can the saints defend their honour and the charitable
offerings of their devout clients.

In 1364 the casket containing the head of S. Hugh of
Lincoln was stolen with its venerated contents. In this

ALMS AND OFFERINGS. 249

case also the thieves gained no advantage by their sacri-
l^ous robbery, for they were discovered, convicted, and
hanged.

The offerings at shrines, and the thefts from them, have
been terminated among us, not only by the suppression of
pilgrimages, but by the wholesale ruin of the shrines them-
selves, and the scattering of their precious contents. In
face of the spirit of destruction let loose at the time of the
Reformation, very few of the relics which the English
Church possessed were left to her. At this distance of
time we can afford to forgive those who sacril^ously bore
away the gold and jewels of reliquaries, and turned them to
their own base purposes. But the ruthless dismemberment
of the bodies of the saintly dead, and the scattering of their
bones upon the dunghills, was an act that could only be
perpetrated by godless ruffians ; and one for which no pleas
of former superstitious usage, no claim of good intentions,
can be admitted for one moment as excuses or extenua-
tions.

Westminster still has the relics of S. Eklward the
Confessor, and Durham claims to possess those of S.
Cuthbert, though the fact is disputed. His shrine and that
of the Venerable Bede were demolished, the coffins were
smashed open with a hammer, and an attempt was actually
made to tear in pieces the uncorrupted body of the former !
Finally the relics were locked up in the vestry to await
further orders ; and at a subsequent time were re-interred.
It was long thought that Lincoln still had the body of S.
Hugh, and a tomb was erected in the seventeenth century
over his supposed resting-place ; but recently it has been
found that no remains are there. At Salisbury are the

250 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

relics of S. Osmund, at Canterbury those of S. Alphege, and
at Ripon, probably, those of S. Wilfrid. The shrine of
S. Thomas of Canterbury, and its famous contents could, of
course, look for no mercy from King Henry VIII., and
certainly got none ; for they recalled the life of an arch-
bishop who had successfully resisted a king. The shrine of
S. Alban, recently reconstructed from the fragments variously
discovered during the restoration of the cathedral of S.
Albans, only for a short time contained the genuine relics
of the English proto-martyr. During the Danish incursions
the monks, fearing for the safety of their treasures, exhumed
the body and translated it to Ely ; and in quieter days the
monks of Ely refused to return it. On this the brethren at
S. Albans " discovered " another body, and declared that the
Ely relics were not genuine, but that the real remains of S.
Alban had been hidden, not translated. Whose were the
bones dispersed at the Reformation, it is therefore impossible
to say. The shrine is now, of course, a mere cenotaph.

Doubtless there are, hidden away by pious hands, in many
churches up and down the country the once-honoured relics
of saints of old ; but their hiding-places have been forgotten.
Within quite recent years the body of S. Eanswythe, the
abbess and patroness of Folkestone, has been discovered
within a leaden casket in the parish church of the town ; and
it may be that yet others may be found elsewhere in the
course of time. Within the crypt of S. Lawrence's Church,
at Chorley, lie the remains of S. Lawrence. These were
brought from Normandy in 1442 by Sir Rowland Standish,
and placed by him where they still lie. Though no one can
suppose them to be the genuine relics of the Roman deacon
of the third century, they are probably those of one of the

ALMS AND OFFKRINGS. 25 1

less known saints of the same name, of whom there are
several The dismembered body of the best known
S. Lawrence, with fragments of the grid-iron on which he
suffered, of his dalmatic, and other relics of him, are
preserved in several of the churches in the city of
Rome.

CHAPTER XII.

Concfttsicn.

THUS have we endeavoured briefly, yet clearly, to trace
the development of some usages in the Church, and
to follow »ome portion of the history of her fabrics and their
furniture ; and we have noted the fancies and superstitions,
»omc merely r|uaint and innocent, some heathenish and
degrading* which have sprung up in the course of the ages
around her, or have continued as relics of the days that
were before her,

Time was when many of these legends and charms and
folk cure* were something of party questions. When some,
recognizing the sacredness of the things with which they had
become no closely linked, were willing strenuously to defend
the falHe for the sake of the true ; and others, disgusted by
the low ideals of high things which these fancies seemed to
involve, were ready to risk the true if they could but
eradicate the false. Now we are able to look on all sides of
thcHc nmttcrM with calmer eyes. We see nothing damnable
in ringing bells, or playing organs, or in devout attitudes in
divine service ; yet we do not feel that truth and righteousness
. in any way demand that we should defend the mockeries of
a boy-bishop's investiture, or the frivolity of ball-play in the
choir.

Again, it is not so long since the majority of Englishmen,
priding themselves — perhaps somewhat unduly — on their

CONCLUSION. 253

enlightenment and freedom from every taint of superstition,
regarded all such matters as charms and talismans, the
folk-lore fancies of days and things lucky and unlucky, and
cognate ideas, as examples of childish imbecility, unworthy
not only of credence, but even of attention from men of
education. Here, too, the times have changed, and we with
them ; for we have awakened to the fact that even the games
of children may enshrine something of the past history of the
race, and that childish fancies may teach us much of the
mental habit of our forefathers, who lived when the world
was young.

But these tales of old, sometimes so wild and weird,
acquire a new and living force if we realize that they are
not after all characteristic exclusively of a type of mind, or
of modes of thought, that are extinct. The mental condition
which weaves legends and fashions mysterious wonders may
be found to-day, when circumstances arise to call it into
play. It is said that in Italy, full of the new life of
nationality, and enamoured of the new light of constitutional
and intellectual freedom — that under such improbable
surroundings a perfect system of myths grew up about the
personality of Garibaldi, even during his life-time. His
famous crimson shirt was said to be dyed in the blood
of his enemies; he himself was believed to be perfectly
invulnerable; he was alleged to have satisfied the thirst
of a parched and exhausted army, like a second Moses,
by firing a cannon at a rock, and so producing streams
of refreshing water ; and the storm which swept the district
at his funeral was firmly believed to have been sent by the
power of his enraged spirit, because his executors buried
his body instead of cremating it, as he had wished. When

254 LORE AND LEGEND OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

such legends could spring up in the middle of the nineteenth
century among a European peasantry, we need not wonder
at the deification of the heathen heroes, nor treat the most
marvellous of the tales of the mediaeval saints as the work of
a people beneath our consideration. Obviously we must
reckon this myth-making tendency as a permanent factor in
human nature ; a factor which may lie dormant at times, and
which does not reveal itself always in the same fashion, but
one which may nevertheless be expected to prove its
existence from time to time.

One further consideration may arise in the mind of the
Churchman as he glances over the ecclesiastical folk-lore
of England. As the shadow proves the existence of the
substance, as hypocrisy is said to show that even vice
appreciates virtue ; so does superstition bear witness to the
soundness of the Faith. It may be questioned whether
there is any falsehood which is not in some way an imita-
tion, a perversion, a sham of a truth ; and thus in the
theories and fancies, wild and childish as they at first
appear, of our traditional folk-lore, we see in most cases but
distorted pictures of greater and more solid things. We
may not now believe that disaster will follow immediately on
a theft of flowers from a churchyard, that premature death
awaits him who, even innocently, helps to pull down a part
of a church, that walking round an altar or wearing a ring
made from " a Sacrament shilling " will ensure bodily health.
But we do believe that there is a special sanctity in the
hallowed ground where lie the bodies of those who have
fallen asleep in Christ ; we do believe that our churches are
signs and types of that One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic,
Church, in which daily we profess our faith, which is the

CONCLUSION. 255

Mystic Body of the Divine Redeemer, and which is, in the
startlingly strong words of S. Paul (Eph. i., 23), " the fulness
of Him that filleth all in all." And we do believe that from
the altar of God flows forth that "grace to help," which is
given us through the Sacramental Presence of Him, who is
the Saviour of the body as well as of the soul.

Jnberee.

I. — Subjects. II. — Places.

Index I.— SUBJECTS.

Abbey churches, the largest, 40
Ace of spades, story of, 45
Acrobats on steeples, 46
AdytUy 203

Affusion, Baptism by, 171
Age for Baptism, 169 ; for Con-
firmation, 175
Agnes's, S., Day, 232
Alban, S., shrine of, 250
All Saints' Tower, Derby, 33, 46,

50, 73
All Souls' Day, 90
Alms-dish, box, etc., 238
Alms in the Prayer-book, 236
Altar candles, 225
Altar-rails, 228
AmbOy 134

Andrewes, Bishop, 228
Angel Steeple, Canterbury, 50
Animals, burial of, 81
Anointing with oil in Baptism, 174 ;

at Confirmation, 176
Anliphonal singing, 218
Antiquity of church sites, 1 1, 15
** Apostolical Constitutions," 28,

31, iii» 161
Apse, use of, 28, 207
Art in the early Church, 4, 5
Articles found in graves, 81
Artifices of preachers, 142
Atrium, 52, 78
Attendance at funerals, 94
Augustine, S., quoted, 166

Bachelors' Aisle, Yarmouth, 33
Bags for alms, 238
Ball playing in church, 213
Bampton Lectures, 143
Banks, the acrobat, 47

Banns of marriage, 178

Baptismal churches, 155

Baptisteries, 154

Barclay, Alexander, quoted, 109

Barnabas' Day, S., 212

Basin for alms, 238

Battle of Neville's Cross, 48, 233

Bay used at funerals, 88

Bearers at funerals, 94

Bearing-cloth, 164

Beating the bounds, 213

Beaumont and Fletcher, quoted,

188
Becon on music, 219
Bede, the Venerable, 2, 80, 249 ;

his chair, 201
Bema, 203

Benches, 104 ; bench-ends, 105
Bentley, Richard, 143
Bequests to churches, 104, 114,

115, 244
" Best man," 188
Betrothal ring, 190
Beuno's mark, S. , 232
Bible, the, in the Church, 152
Biddenden Maids, the, 75
Biers, 84
Bishopping, 176
Black Death, the, 33
Blessing the font, 161
Boils, cure for, 64
Borlase, quoted, 14
Bowing towards the altar, 227
Boxes for alms, 238
Boy-bishops, 214
Boyle Lectures, 143
Bradford, John, 105
Breaking the ring, 196
Bridal dress, 184

17

258

INDEX.

Bride's maids, 187 ; mother, 188

Briefs, 34, 241, 242

Bristol Cathedral lectern, 150

Bronze fonts, 155

Browne, Sir Thomas, quoted, 56,
63, 78, 80, 81, 88, 96, 97

Browne, Wm., quoted, 189

Buckinghamshire folk-lore, 20

Buj^gancy the, 26

Bulls, legends of, 22, 27

Burial in churches, 78; in church-
yards, 52, 78 ; on the north
side of the church, 65, 79 ;
in woollen, 92

Butler, Samuel, quoted, 194

Buying wives, 197

Caistor gad- whip, 152
Candlemas, 131, 211
Canon law on marriage, 182
Canons of the English Church,

52, 127, 137, 139, 152, 168
Canopies over fonts, 159
Cantoris y 2l8

Cap for use at Baptism, 166
Capitula of Theodulph, 137, 139
Captives, alms for release of, 243
Carol Ewyn^ 220
Carol singing, 39, 220
Cartwright, Thomas, quoted, 195,

197
Cartwright, William, quoted, 85
CarvalSy 220
Carvings on churches, curious,

17, 24, 33, 34, 45, 209; on

bench -ends, 105 ; on fonts,

156

Casaubon, quoted, 120

Cats, legends of, 20, 64

Catafalque^ 91

Cathedrals, largest in England, 40

Cat tic -plague, hymn for, 223

Celtic sacred places, 12

Chancel, the, 204

Chapelle ardent e^ 91

Chapel Royal, S. James's, 234 ;

Whitehall, 235
Charles I., patent of, 240
Chatterton's poems, 47
Cheshire folk-lore, 67

Chevy Chase, l^allad of, 232

Childermas, 215

Choir, the, 204

Choral services, 218

Choristers at Lichfield, 213 ;

Ripon, 132
Church likened to a ship, 28, loi
Church-ales, 71
Churches, burial in, 78 ; covered

by sea, 37 ; by sand, 38 ;

cruciform, 28 ; octagonal,

28 ; wooden, 28 ; orientation

of, 31
Church -porch, marris^e in, 189
Churchyards, circular, 12 ; cross

in, 68, 74 ; north side of,

.65, 79

Chrisom, 165

Chrisom-child, 166

Christmas customs, 114, 130, 132

Chrysostom, S. , 16

Circular churchyards, 12

Civil Wars, churches during the,
50, 224

Classic use of roses, 57

Clipping the church, 71

Clocks in church towers, 48

Cock, legend of, 26

Coffins, use of, 84

Colours for bridal dress, 184, 185

Columha, S., 22

Confirmation, 174

Consecration of water for Baptism,
161, 163

Constantine, S., 11, 28, 78

Conversion of Northumbria, 2

Cornish bench-ends, 105 ; folk-
lore, 19, 21, 38, 44, 48, 57,
59» 63, 76,97, 124, 169, 171,
184, 225, 239

Corpse-candles, 95

Corpus Christi, 146

Cosin, Bishop, 211

Councils and Synods, Braga, 78 ;
Carnot, 216; Cashel, 170;
Cealchythe, 168, 170; Dur-
ham, 158, 193; Exeter, 54,
57, 104, 175 ; London, 167,
168, 174, 178 ; Meaux, 155 ;
Mentz, 167 ; Nantes, 78 ;

INDEX.

259

Nice, 216 ; Oxford, 168 ;
Scotland, 69, 167, 205 ;
Toledo, 203 ; Westminster,
174 ; York, 167

Court uf Arches, ruling of, 127

Covers for fonts, 158

Cows, legends of, 29, 47 ; car-
ving of, 17 ; superstition con-
cerning, 58

Cranmer, quoted, 160

Cruciform churches, 28

Crying at Baptism, 171

Cup, bridal, 200

Curious churches, 41 ; grave-
stones, 98 ; steeples, 51

Cuthbert, Archbishop, 52

Cuthbert, S., 16, 247, 249,

Cyprian, S., quoted, 161

Dancing in church, 117

David, S., 96

Davenant, quoted, 194

Deacons, 237

Death tokens, 48, 83, 226

Decani, 218

Decorations at Christmas, 130 ;
Whitsuntide, 132 ; S. Bar-
nabas' Day, 132, 212 ; of
graves, 90

Deer, legend of, 21

Dekker, quoted, 200

Derbyshire folk-lore, 14

De Rossi, quoted, 5

Destruction of heathen temples,
II ; of churches by fire, 35

Devil, legends of, 21, 44

Devil's door, 171

Devonshire folk-lore, 21, 64, 83,
125, 175, 225, 239

Diabolic possession of churches,

25
Dice in church, 226

Divination by wells, 14 ; of
various kinds, 124 ; penance
for, 122

Dog Noper^ 114

Dogs in church, 109, 114

Dog-whipper, 114

Doles, 75, 243

Donne, Dr., 89

Donnellan Lectures, 143

Dooms, 126

Dorsetshire folk-lore, 76

Doves, legend of, 2C

Drayton, quoted, 85

Dress at church, 113; ofbrides,i84

Dropping the ring, 195

Druidic regard for wells, 14

Dryden, quoted, 92

Duke of Northumberland's

Maundy, 236
Dunstan, S., 8
Durandus, quoted, 79
Durham folk-lore, 83, 99, 188,

240
Dust from church floor, 124
Dydd Degwm Wyn, 231

Eagle lecterns, 149
Eanswythe, S., relics of, 250
Early Christian art, 45
Earth to earth, 97
Easter customs, 90, 114, 117, 213
Edward the Confessor, S. , 29
Edwin and Emma, ICX)
Edwin, King of Northumbria, 2
Endowed sermons, 143, 226
Epilepsy, cure of, 124
Epiphany, royal offerings at, 234
Epitaphs, 99
Erasmus, quoted, 247
Essex folk-lore, 188
Eucharist at weddings, 199
Eusebius, quoted, 16, 204
Eva, name of, 172
Evagrius, 28

Evidential value of m)rths, 254
Excerptions of Egbert, 52, 137
Exhumation, 97

Fairchild sermon, 145
Fairies, doings of, 20
Fairs in churches, 116; in church-
yards, 69
Faldstool, 153

** Falling over the Pulpit," 179
Feasting in church, 1 17
Fifeshire proverb, 125
Fillets for Confirmation, 176
Finan, S., 29

26o

INDEX.

Fire, destruction by, 35 ; at York,
150; Insurance against, 35
{nc/e)

First burial in a churchyard,
80 ; Baptism in new font,
164

Fits, cure of, 225

Flavel, Rev. Thos., 59

Floors covered with rushes, 102 ;
pea-straw, 103 ; grass, 104

Flowering Sunday, 90

Flowers at funerals, 83 ; at wed-
dings, 189

^^Yi legend of a, 26

Font, material of, 155 ; shape of,
1 56 ; cover for, 1 58 ; canopy
over, 159 ; blessing of, 161 ;
decoration of, 156 ; position
of, 159 ; Puritan objections
to, 159

Fontinalta^ 14

Forbidding the banns, 180

Fortified church towers, 49

Friday weddings, 184

Funds for church building, 32

Funerals, garlands at, 86 ; ser-
mons at, 113, 147 ; of royal
persons, 95

Gad -whip, Caistor, 152

Gallery, iii

Games in churchyards, 69

Garibaldi, myths concerning, 253

Garlands, funeral, 86

Gay, quoted, 63, 85, 87

Gayer, Sir John, 144

George, S., 126

George II., funeral of, 95 ; III.,
anecdote of, 46

Germoe, S., 76

Ghosts, Dr. Johnson on, 3

Gibbets, alms for, 240

Gilds, 32, 115

Gloucestershire folk-lore, 82

Godparents, 166, 167 ; at Con-
firmation, 175

"God's Acre," 52

Googe, Barnaby, quoted, 117, 130

Grass of churchyard, 58 ; on
church floor, 104

Grave-merels, 83
Graves, orientation of, 79
Grave-stones, curious, 98
Grazing the churchyard, 58
Gregory the Great, S , quoted, 4,

12
Green an unlucky colour, 184
Gresham, Sir John, funeral of, 95
Grindal's Injunctions, 103
Growth of Church folk-lore, i

Habingdon, quoted, 92

Hair, how worn at weddings, 185

Hall-dog pews, 109

Hangings for the choir, 211

Hare, legend of a, 21

Hats worn in church, 108, 113

Haunted churchyards, 58

Hearne, the antiquary, 80

Hearse, see Herse

Heathen usages retained by the
Church, 4, 5 ; temples des-
troyed, II ; temples conse-
crated, 4, 12 ; regard for
wells, 13, 14, 15

Helena, S., iii

Hemp-seed as a charm, 62

Henry V., funeral of, 95, 245

Herefordshire folk-lore, 239

Herrick, quoted, 191

Herse, 91, 148, 246

High pews, 107

Holy Sepulchre, church of the, 28

Holy wells, 13, 14, 15, 164

Homilies, 139

Honorius, 11

Hood, Tom, alluded to, 62

Hooker, quoted, 195, 197

Hooper, quoted, 119

Horses offered at the altar, 245 ;
skulls of, found in church, 47

Hour-glass in pulpits, 135

Houselling-cloth, 229

Howel Dha, 52

Hugh, S., 246, 248, 249

Hulsean Lectures, 143

Human sacrifices-, 22, 81, 164

Hunt, Holman, 128

Huntingdonshire folk-lore, 226

Hymns, 221 ; sung on steeples, 48

INDEX.

261

Immersion, Baptism by, 170
Impressing choristers, 217
Ingulphus, 29
Inscriptions on fonts, 157
Insurance against fire, 35 {note)
Interest of folk-lore, 252
Irish folk-lore, 84, 196
Italian churches, 31

James I., story concerning, 142
Jerome, S., quoted, 130
John, King, and Pandulf, 31
Johnson, Dr., quoted, 3
Jonson, Ben, quoted, 91, 120, 173
Jordan water used for Baptism, 163
Judges' attendance at church, 116

Kelly, the alchymist, 196
Kent folk-lore, 75
King, Bishop Oliver, 33
King's sympathy, 244
Kiss, the nuptial, 198
Knights Templars, 30

Laity in the chancel, 205
Lammas Day, 231
Lancashire folk-lore, 17, 20
Land of the Lyonnesse, 38
Land measures within the church,

120
Land tenures, 89, 104, 114, 233
Largest churches in -England, 40
Latimer, quoted, 140
Laud, Archbishop, 113, 117, 227,

228
Law courts in churchyards, 70
Lawrence, S., relics of, 250
Lead fonts, 155 ; from church

windows, 124
Lectern, 149
Lectures, 143, 144
Left-handed Confirmation, 175
Legends, meaning of, 7, 8
Leicestershire folk-lore, 20, 97
Lights in church, 211, 225, 246
Lincolnshire folk-lore, 82, 152,

180
Lion sermon, the,. 144
Litany-desk, 153
Loaf-mas";, 231

Lofts, III

Long-bows of yew, 54
Longevity of yews, 56
Longfellow, quoted, 52
Long sermons, 135
Lych-gates, 67

Malkin, quoted, 69

Mallet, referred to, 100

Manx folk-lore, 25, 26, 27, 36,

67, 84, 94, 98, 115, 122,

123, 188, 220, 227
Marriage in church porch, 189 ;

in a sheet, 186 ; proverbs

concerning, 183
Markets in churchyards, 69, 70
Mark's Eve, S., 59
Marston, quoted, 199
Marprelate tracts, 80
Mary, Queen of Scots, 98
Maundy gifts, 235
May Day, 64
May marriages, 184
Mayors' attendance at church, 115
Mediaeval preaching, 137, 139
Memorial services, 148
Mermaid, legend of a, 106
Metal for wedding-ring, 193, 196
Midnight mass, 221
Midsummer Eve, 61, 62
Mileto, Abbot, 4
Military use of churches, 49, 50
Milton, quoted, 13, 14, 66
Minstrels, 223 ; gallery for, 224
** Minstrel's pillar," 224
Miracle plays, 70
M iraculous intimation of sites, 1 7,20
Misericordes, 208
Mistletoe, use of, 131
Mocking the Church, 180
Money given at marriage, 197
Montgomery, Jas., quoted, 61, 62
Morocco, a performing horse, 47
Mortuary offerings, 244
Mottoes on dials, 77
Movable pulpits, 134
Moyer Lecture, the, 143
Music at weddings, 188, 201 ; the

Reformers on use of, 219
Myths, growth of, 253

262

INDEX.

Names, baptismal, 171

Nave, meaning of, 102

Neville's Cross, battle of, 48, 233

Newton, Thos., quoted, 102

Nicholas' Day, S., 215

Ninian, S., 29

Norfolk folk-lore, 44, 99, 125,

170
North, a type of the Devil, 66 ;

side of the churchyard, 65, 79
Northamptonshire folk-lore, 97
Northumbrian folk-lore, 64, 82,

83, 201 ; conversion, 2
Noteworthy steeples, 50
Nottinghamshire folk-lore, 179,

240
Number of sponsors, 167
Nuptial kiss, 198 ; masses, 199

Oblations of animals, 231, 232
Octagonal churches, 28 ; fonts,

156

Offering enemies, 233

Offerings at shrines, 32, 245

Offertory, meaning of, 237

Offrwm Gelyn, 233

Organs, 219, 220, 224

Oie'l Verrey, 220

Old S. Paul's Cathedral, 46, 48,

89, 119, 120, 142,211, 233
Orange blossom, 185
Orchestra, parish, 223
Orientation of churches, 31 ; of

graves, 79
Oswald, S., 21, 24
Overbury, Sir Thos., quoted, 84
Oxfordshire folk-lore, 21, 25, 75

Painted windows, 126
Paintings in churches, 126
Pallium (Archbishop's), 233 ;

nuptial, 185
Palm Sunday customs, 55, 74, 90
Parents as sponsors, 166, 168
Parish churches, the largest, 40 ;

clerks, 222 ; coffins, 84 ;

stocks, 74
Parker, Archbishop, quoted, 160
Paschal Candle, 211
Patents, or briefs, 241, 242

Patrick, S., 22, 31

Paul's, S., Cathedral, 12, 40, 46,
119, 120, 128, 143, 238 (see
also Old S. PauPs) ; Cross,
74; School, 214; Walk, 119

Paulinus, S., 2 ; of Nola, 16, 130,
204, 221

Pea-straw for church floors, 103

Peckham's Constitutions, 138

Pelican lecterns, 151

Penance, public, 75, 121

Penitential of Egbert, 167

Pennant, quoted, 164

Pepys, quoted, 89

Perthshire folk-lore, 180, 220

Peter's chains, S., 231

Petting -stone, 201

Pews, 105

Pigs, legends of, 20, 24, 25

Pilkington, quoted, 46, 48

** Places where they sing," 206

Playing at ball in church, 213

Pope, Alexander, quoted, 93

Posies, 191

Position of font, 159

Posy -rings, 191

Praise-God Barbones, 173

Preaching crosses, 74

Presbytery, 203

Private pews, 109

Probus, S. , 44

Proclamation of Henry VIII., 216

Prosper of Aquitaine, 12

Public Penance, 75, 121

Pulling down churches unlucky,

36
Pulpitres^ 134

Puipitunif 134

Puritan objections to art, 126 ;
fonts, 159 ; funeral sermons,
147 ; liturgy, 107 ; music, 219 ;
wedding-ring, 194

Puritanical names, 173 ; sermons,

135
Qualifications of sponsors, 168

Ravens, superstition concerning, 36
Redeeming captives, 243
Regard for holy sites, 36

INDEX.

263

Relics in English churches, 249

Religion and the people, 89

Removal of churches, 20

Restoration of Bath Abbey, 33

Ring-finger, 192

Rings, wedding, 190

Rites of Durham, 17

** Roaring Bull o* Bagbury," 27

Robin Hood, story of, 33

Rood-screens, 204

Rosemary at funerals, 85 ; at
weddings, 146

Roses in churchyards, 57

Round churches, 28, 29

Rowe, quoted, 189

Royal arms, 129 ; Epiphany off-
erings, 234 ; Maundy gifts,
235 ; names, 172 ; prebend,
206

Ruined churches, services in, 39

Rush -bearing, 102

Rushes for church floors, 102, 189

Rush rings, 193

Ruskin on legends, 7

Sacrament money, 124, 238 ;

wine, 225
Sacrarium, 203
Sacred sites of Paganism, 23, 24,

27
Sand, churches covered by, 38
Scaffold, a gallery, iii
Scandinavian legends, 25
Scottish churches, 15 ; folk-lore,

184, 220
Scriptural names, 171
Sea, advance of, on coast, 37
Seasons for Baptism, 160, 162 ;

for matrimony, 182
Seats in church, 104
Secular uses of churchyards, 68
Separation of sexes in church, 1 1 1
Sepulchre's, S., churches, 30
Sermons at funerals, 113; at
weddings, 146, 147 ; Lati-
mer's, 140
Seward, Miss, quoted, 87
Sexes divided in church, 11 1
Shakespeare, quoted, 54, 56, 58,
59, 66, 73, 79, 83, 84, 85,

87, 88, 91, 94, 96, 97, 120,
165, 166, 173, 183, 185, 191,

194, 199, 200, 201
Sheet, marriage in a, 186
Shrines, famous, 246 ; offerings

at, 32, 246
Ship, an emblem of the Church,

28, lOI
Shropshire folk-lore, 21, 23, 27,

37, 48, 63, 67, 68, 69, 90,

116, 117, 132, 169, 171, 181,

195, 239
Shrovetide customs, 71
Sibrit, 179

Silver font, 155

Simeon, Stylites, S., 28

Singing hymns on church towers,

48, 49
Sites, regard for, sacred, 36 ;

miraculously indicated, 16,

17, 20
Smallest church in England, 40
Socrates, the historian, 16, 11 1
Somersetshire folk-lore, 33, 34,

120
Speght, quoted, 73
Sponsors, 166
Sprinkling in Baptism, 171
Sputrings^ 179
Staffordshire folk-lore, 14, 20, 59,

98, 132, 169, 240
Stalls, 207
Standards of measurement in

church, 120, 126
State attendances, 115
Statues in churches, 126
Steeples, use of, 43 ; fortified,

49 ; famous, 50
Sternhold and EEopkins, 221
Stichild's penance, 121
Still-born infants, 83
Stocks, parish, 74
Stone seats, 104
Strange names, 173
Straw for church floors, 103
Stubs, quoted, 72, 105
Substitutes for palms, 55
Suffolk folk-lore, 188
Sunday funerals, 82 ; weather,

125 ; weddings, 183

264

INDEX.

Sun-dials, 76
Sun worship, relics of, 96
Surname of bride, 199
Surpliced choiis, 206
Sussex folk-lore, 21
Swithin, S., legend of, 79
Synod, see Council.

Taleih, the, 185

Talismans from churchyards, 63

Tate and Brady, 222

Taylor, Jeremy, quoted, 166

Taylor, the Water Poet, quoted,

173
Temple Church, 3c

Temples, Pagan, consecrated, 4,

12 ; destroyed, 1 1
TertuUian, quoted, 16, 190
Thefts from shrines, 247 ; from

churchyards, 57
Theodosius, 11
Thomas, name oif, 172
Thornhill, Sir Jas., 128
Thoroughfares in churches, 119
Thorpe, Wm., on music, 220
** Three-decker" pulpits, 136
Thursday weddings, 183
Thusiasterion, 203
Toothache, cure for, 63
Torches at funerals, 95
Towers, the Devil's dislike to, 44 ;

use of, 43 ; fortified, 49 ;

famous, 50
Trees in churchyards, 53 ; within

churches, 133
Trine immersion, 170
Twin churches, 39
Tyndale, Wm., quoted, 160, 176,

194

Unction at Baptism, 174; at Con-
firmation, 176
Unlawful seasons for marriage, 182

Valentin ian, 11
Valentine's, S., Eve, 63
Veil, bridal, 185
Venif Creator J 221

Virgin's funeral garlands, 86
Volowing, 176

Wakes, 68 ; at Shrewsbury, 39
Waldron, quoted, 188
Warburtonian Lecture, 143
Water, uses of in the early Church,

16
Wearing hats in church, 108, 113
Weather-lore, 79, 83, 125
Wedding-ring, 190; sermons, 146 ;

folk-lore, 48, 67
Wells, Pagan regard for, 13, 14, 15
Welsh churchyards, 12, 15 ; folk-
lore, 19, 20, 25, 27, 57, 65,
69, 88, 90, 95, 96, 125, 164,
221, 232, 233, 238
Westminster Abbey, 29, 95
West side of church, burial on, 79
Wheatley, quoted, 193
Whip-dog Day, 214
Whips for dogs, 1 14
White, Gilbert, quoted, 53, 65.

86, 108
Whitsuntide customs, 90, 132
Whooping-cough, cure for, 63
Widows at weddings, 188
Wife-capture, 188
William of Perth, S., 32
Witchcraft, 20, 64, 121, 125
Wilfrid, S., 32
Wiltshire folk-lore, 239
Wilson, Bishop, quoted, 123
Windows, painted, 126
Wood, Anthony, quoted, 127, 196
Wooden churches, 28 ; pulpits,

135; fonts, 155
Woollen, burial in, 92
Worcestershire folk-lore, 70
Wordsworth, quoted, 184
Worship, meaning of, 197
Written sermons, 138

Yews in churchyards, 53
York Fabric Rolls, quoted, 70
Yorkshire holy wells, 15 ; folk-
lore, 24, 48, 82, 96, 117, 164,
190, 214, 223, 240

INDEX.

265

Index II.— PLACES.

Note. — In the following Index the names of places beginning
with Saint, as S. Albans, are placed under the letter S ; names
having a distinguishing adjective, as Little Maplestead, are ranged
under the initial of the first word in each case.

Abbey Dore, 41

Abbott's Ann, 88

Abingdon, 42, 145

Acaster Malbis, 129

Acton Burwell, 88

Albrighton, 40

Aldborough, 37

Aldingham, 77

Alford (Lincolnshire), 82

Alfreton, 88

Alfriston, 21, 29

Altarnun, 21, 106

Ambleside, 103

Antioch, 28

Ashburton, 55

Ashby Folville, 156

Ashford-on- the- Water, 88

Ashill, 56

Ash ton- under- Lyne, 45, 186

Astley Abbots, 88

Athens, 51

Auburn, 37

Aveley, 109

Bagbury, 27
Bakewell, 88
Baldwin, 36
Ballaugh, 122
Bangor, 20

Barford S. Michael's, 75
Barnard Castle, 94
Barnes, 57

Barnetby-le-Wold, 155
Barthomley, 67
Baschurch, 21, 48
Baslow, 114
Bath, 33

Beaconsfield, 108
Beckenham, 67, 238
Bedale, 49
Bemerton, 40
Bernard's Mount, 18
Berrington, 118

Berwick-on-Tweed, 42

BettwsGwerfil-Ooch, 12

Beverley, 40, 209, 210, 224

Biddenden, 75

Bilston, 132, 240

Birmingham, 71

Bisley, 15

Bittersley, 164

Blackpool, 37

Blickling, 238

Blyth, 126

Blythborough, 238

Bologna, 31

Boston, 50, 209, 210

Bottesford, 104

Bovey-Tracey, 81

Bowes, 99

Bradford-on-Avon, 41, 71

Bradley, 157

Braga, 78

Braunton, 21

Breedon, 20, 23

Breedon-on-the-Hill, 109

Brent Tor, 21

Bristol, 47, 116, 131, 150, 151,

209, 210
Broughton, 21, 152
Bryn-y-Hynnon, 19
Burgh-on-the-Sands, 49
Burnham Deepdale, 157
Burnsall, 67
Burrough, 157
Burstall; 37
Bury S. Edmunds, 29, 233

Caistor, 84, 85, 152
Calverley, 114

Cambridge, 30, 135, 140, 143
Canterbury, 50, 65, 119, 149,

156, 161, 207, 219, 227, 241,

243, 247, 250
Capel Garmon, 21, 23
Carnot, 216

18

266

INDEX.

Cartmel, 17, 51,210

Cashel, 22. 170

Castle Acre, 158

Caetleford, 130

Castle Morton, 133

Caxtoii, 105

Cerrig-y-druidion, 12, 25

Chaddesden, 73

Charlcombe, 41

Chester, 35, 210, 213

Chestertield, 51

Chester-le-Street, 16

Chichefcter, 50, 116, 210, 224, 241

Chiltern All Saints, 186

Chinnor, 128

Chorlev. 250

Christel, 114

Cilcenin, 12

Cleveland, 82

CI ewer, 155

Clungunford, 117

Clynnog Fawr, 114, 232

C'Oates, 41

Coleshill, 156

Cologne, 31

Constantinople, 28, 51

Cor wen, 21

Coventry, 40

Cromer, 242

Crosmere, 37

Cross Canonby, 157

Crowan, 225

Crowle, 74, 77, 224

Croyland, 29, 209

Culbone, 41

Darley, 56
Darlington, 210
Deerhurst, 156
Dereham, 156
Deptford, 104
Derby, 33, 46, 50, 73, 243
Derwen, 12
Devonport, 83
Don caster, 51
Donington, 15, 40
Dorchester, 155
Douglas, 36
Dover, 3U
Dublin, 135, 143

Dulwicb, 157

Dunsby, 157

Dunwicb, 38

Durham, 16, 29, 39, 47, 48, 98,
112, 114, 116, 119, 121, 122,
151, 193.205,211,212, 227,
233, 245, 247, 249

Easby, 109

Easingwold, 84

East Dereham, 15

East Halton, 114

Eastville, 31

East Wretham, 158

Ecclesfield, 114

Edgmond, 71

Edmonton, 83

Efenechtyd, 12, 155, 239

EUesmere, 71

Elsdon, 47

Ely, 35, 50. 116,210,250

Exeter, 54, 57, 104, 116, 121,

175, 210, 224
Eyam, 87

Farndish, 41
Farndop, 90
Farringdon, 86
Fenton, 4)
Finchale, 39
Fincham, 157
Finedon, 105
Fisherty Brow, 36
Fishlake, 60
Folkestone, 250
Ford, 61
Fountains, 56
Frampton, 181
Frampton-on-Sevem, 155
Fulbourne, 135

Garstang, 76
Geddington, 105
(iedney, 186
Geneu'r Glyn, 19
Glastonbury, 29
Gloucester, 210, 216
Goosnargh, 77
C^orton Green, 186
Gosport, 89

INDEX.

267

Great OrimBby, 241, 242
Great Toller, 157
GreenBtead, 28
Guenisey, 155
Gwithian, 38

Haddon, 148
Hadstock, 35
Hagworthinghaxxi, 242
Halifax, 158
Haleworthy, 239
Hambleton, 76
Hanchurch, 20
Hanwood, 88
HappiBbargh, 156
Harlington, 56
Harlow, 157
Heanor, 88
Heapy, 76
Hedon, 51
Helmsley, 70
HenBall, 229
Hepworth, 158
Hereford, 74, 112, 210
Heton, 215
Hexham, 111
Hinghaxn, 157
HouqbIow, 56
Hoxton, 145
Hundon, 152
Hurstpierpoint, 226
Huttoft, 157
Hyde, 215 {note)
HyfisingtoQ, 27

lona, 22
Ippwich, 38
Isle of Wight, 41

Jarrow, 201
Jernsalem, 51, 158
JeBmond, 15

Kempsey, 133
Kentcheeter, 157
Kentford, 35
Kerry, 12
Kilpimal, 37
KilKenny, 135
KilnBea, 37

Kilpeck, 41
Kirk bum, 156
Kirkby Lousdale, 36
Kirk Malew, 123
Kirk Michael, 122
ELirtoD-iD-LindBey, 228

Laceby, 61

Lamesley, 93

Laugley Marsh, 105

Laon, 31

LauncellB, 106

Lavenham, 105

Leamington Priory, 229

Leeds, 135

Leicsester, 157

Lew Trenchard, 105

Leyland, 30

Lezayre, 123

Lichfield, 15,50, 91, 213

Lincoln, 50, 149, 204, 205, 210,
227, 241, 246, 248, 249

Lindisfame, 29

Little Dunkeld, 15

Little Maplestead, 30

Little NeBB, 88

Liverpool, 74

Llanarmon, 12

Llandegla, 15

Llandysylo, 26, 173

Llandymog, 12

Llan Elidan, 12

Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, 20

Llanfechain, 12

Llanfor, 25

Llangar, 19

Llan-garw-gwyn, 19

LlanUechid, 20, 23

Llanynys, 114

London, 12, 30, 35, 40, 55, 84,
103, 115, 128, 135, 140, 142,
143, 157, 161, 164, 167, 168,
174, 178, 187, 212, 238, 241,
243

Long Melford, 105

Louth, 51

Ludlow, 15, 32, 50

Lullington, 40

Luton, 159

Lutterworth, 126, 135

268

INDEX.

Lydford, 124
Lynn, 149, 156

Mablethorpe S. Peter, 37
Madeley, 67
Madron, 75
Maestricht, 208
MalmeHbury. 29
Malta, 113

Manchester, 76, 126, 210
Manghold, 98
Marr, 130
Matlock, 88
Meaux, 155
Melsonby, 49
Melton, 157
Melton Mowbray, 157
Mentz, 167
Metz, 31
Middled am, 49
Milton Abbas, 242
Mitton, 156
Monksilver, 34
Moulton, 127
Mullion, 106
Musselburgh, 15

Nantes, 78

Nantwich, 209

Nazianzum, 28

Nettlecombe, 105, 156

Newburn-on-Tyne, 93

NewcEUiitle-onTyne, 15, 50, 122

Newington, 156

Newstead, 150

Newton (Cumberland), 49

Nice, 216

Northampton, 30

Northorpe, 109

Norton, 182

Norton (Staffs.), 89
Norwich, 74, 103, 115, 119, 135,
149, 156, 159, 207, 238, 241

Ockley, 57
Old Weston, 103
Orford, 158
Ormskirk, 45
Osmotherley, 223
Oswestry, 196

Otlev, 186
Ottery S. Mary, 50
Out S'ewton, 37
Owthorne, 37

Oxford, 35. 75. 128, 143, 149,
156, 165, 168, 173, 176, 227

Paddington, 244
Padstow, 38
Par ham, 155
Paris, 31, 76
Patrington, 156
Pavenham, 104
Payerne, 102
Penkridge, 210
Penzance, 124
Perranzabuloe, 38
Pershore, 70
Plumpstead Magna, 155
Plympton S. Mary, 21
Pontefract, 41, 50
Pool, 242
Poughill, 106
Powderham, 50
Prestwich, 45
Probus, 44
Pulpit, 19
Puxton, 120

Raby, 233

Ravenspur, 37

Reading, 126, 211

Reculver, 38

Redcliffe, 47

Ripon, 16, 32, 91, 132, 209, 210,

250
Rochdale, 21, 23
Rochester, 32, 241
Rome, 31, 51, 102, 232, 250
Ross, 133
Ruabon, 173
Rudstone, 24

Sabul, 31

Salamanca, 31

S. Albans, 135, 250

Salisbury, 46, 50, 119, 149, 161,

214, 215, 249
Salkeld, 49
S. Anthony, 110, 157

INDEX.

269

S. Blazey, 225

S. Budeaux, 50

Scarborough, 61

Scilly, 113

S. David's, 114, 206

S. Dennis, 76

Selborno, 86, 108

Selham, 41

S. Enodock, 38

S. Ewe, 51

S. Germans, 229

S. Germoe, 76

Shaw (Lanes.), 76

Shaw (Staffs. ), 89

SheUesley, 105

Sheppey, Isle of, 69

Sherborne, 210

Shrawardine, 88

Shrewsbury, 39, 46, 70, 87, 91

S. Ives, 226

S. Just-in Penwith, 125

Skirbeck, 180

Skyv'ogr, 96

S. Levan, 39

S. Mary Overy, 215

Southampton, 89, 113

South Leigh, 126

Southwark, 241

Southwell, 150

Stafiford, 157

Staindrop, 81

Stamford, 51

Stamford Bridge, 70

Stamford-in-the-Vale, 114

Stanhope, 87

Stoke S. Milborough, 15, 69

Stoke-upon-Tern, 21, 68

Stonehenge, 12

Stopham, 41

Stratford-on-Avon, 126

Strathfillan, 15

Stratton, 106

Streatham, 135

S. Trinian, 26

Swaffham Prior, 40

Talland, 19, 105
Tansfield, 91
Taunton, 50
Tavistock, 114

Tettenhall, 98
Tewkesbury, 40
Thornton (Dorset), 76
Thrapston, 242
Tiddcnham, 155
Tiverton, 50
Tonge, 89
Towednack, 44
Townstall, 50
Tremeirchion, 12
Treves, 31
Trimley, 40
Trull, 106
TrysuU, 114
Tunstall, 37
Twyford, 156
Tynemouth, 242

Udimore, 21

Very an, 48

Waldron, 21

Walsall, 20

Walsh, 105

Walsingham, 247

Walsoken, 156

Walton-on-the-Hill, 74, 165

Wareham, 155

Warlingworth, 157

Watchet, 15

Waterford, 152

Well, 31

Wellcombe, 171

Wellingborough, 209

Wellington, 71

Wellow, 179

Wells, 120, 149, 210, 224

Wem, 116

Wendover, 20

Wenlock, 15

Wensley, 109

Westmeon, 35

Westminster, 29, 95, 103, 126,

137, 174, 209, 211, 233, 238,

241 249
West Walton, 44
Whaplode, 133
Whitburn, 200
Whitehaven, 187

270

INDEX.

Whitherae, 29
Wickbampton, 99
Widdicombe, 110
Wilne, 158
Wilfidon, 200
Wimborne, 152, 210, 229
Winchester, 79, HI, 149, 156,

194
Windsor, 227
Wingfield, 88
Winsteriey, 88
Winwick, 20, 24
Withernsea, 37
Witney, 35, 93
Woldingbam, 41

Wolsingham, 87
Wolverhampton, 115, 240
Woodbury, 55
Woodplumpton, 76
Worcester, 74, 99, 119, 227, 246
Wortield, 21
Worsted, 111, 156, 158
Wrexham, 19, 50

Yarmouth, 33, 38, 40
York, 40, 50. 70, 149, 150, 158,
167, 204, 214, 224, 231, 241
Youghal, 84

Zennor, 106

/

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

OF

William Andrews & Co.,

5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, LONDON.

ic Dress of the Clergy.

BY THE Riv. GEO. S. TYACJC, B.A.,

Antbot uf "The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and ArL'*

Orownt doth exfra, Sb, 6d.

'Vtie work contains thirty-three illustrations from ancient
monainents, rare manuscripts, and other sources.

" A very painstaking aud very valuable volume un a subject which is just
Quw attracting much attention. Mr. Tyack has collected a large amount
ui information from sources not available to the unlearned, and has put
together his materials in an attractive way. The book deserves and is sure
to meet with a wide circulation." — Dat/y ChrontcU,

" This book is written with great care, and with an evident knowledge
of history. It is well worth the study of all who wish to be better informed
upon a subject which the author states in his preface gives evident signs of
a lively and growing interest." — Manchtster Courier,

" Those who are interested in the Dress of the Clergy will find full in-
formation gathered together here, and set forth in a ludd and scholarly
«vay." — Glasgow Herald.

" We are glad to welcome yet another volume trom the author of ' The
Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art' His bUDJect, chosen widely and
carried out comprehensively, makes this & valuable book of reference for
all classes. It is only the antiquary and the ecclesiologist who can devote
time and talents to research of this kind, and Mr. Tyack has done a real
and lasting service to the Church of England by collecting so much useful
and reliable information upon the dress of the clergy in all ages, and offering
it to the public in such a popular form. We do not hesitate to recommend
this volume as the most reliable and the most comprehensive illustrated
guide to the history and origin of the canonical vestments and other dress
worn by the clergy, whether ecclesiastical, academical, or general, while
the excellent work in typography and binding make it a beautiful gift-
book."— CA«rM Bells,

••

A very lucid history ot ecclesiastical vestments from Levitical times to
Che present day."— /W/ Mall Gauttt.

**The book can be recommended to tbe undoubtedly large class of
persons who are seeking information on this and kindred subjects." — Tlu
Timts,

"The work may be read either as pastime or tor instruction, and is
worthy of a place in the permanent section ot any library. The numerous
Ulustratiouo, extensive contents table and index, and l)eautifu) workmanship,
tx>th in typo^rraphy and binding, aic aU features of attraction and utility."
— DuHiitt Au\f€rtUor,

The Miracle Play in England,

An Account of the Early Religioas DimnuL

By SIDNEY W. CLARKE, Barrister-at-Law.

OroiMi 8vo.t St. €d. lUunrated,

In bygone times the Miracle Play formed an important
feature in the religious life of England. To those taking an
interest in the history of the Church of England, this volume
will prove useful. The author has given long and careful
study to this subject, and produced a reliable and readable
book, which can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader.
It is a volume for general reading, and for a permanent place
in the reference library.

Contents :— The Origin of Drama— The Beginnings of English Dimma
—The York Plays— The Wakefield Plays— The Chester Plays— The
Coventry Plays — Other English Miracle Plays — ^The Production of a
Miracle Play — The Scenery, Properties, and Dresses — Appendix — ^The
Order of the York Plays — Extract from City Register of York, 1426 —
The Order of the Wakefield Plays— The Order of the Chester Plays—
The Order of the Grey Friars' Plays at Coventry— A Miracle Play in a
Pappet Show— Index.

*' Mr. Clarke has chosen a most interesting subject, one that is
attractive alike to the student, the historian, and the general reader
.... A most interesting volume, and a number of quaint iliustratioiis
add to its value." — Birmingham Daily GautU,

*'Tbe book should be useful to many." — Manckestir Guetrdian,

"An admirable work." — Easttm Morning Niws.

"Mr. Sidney Clarke's concise monograph in 'The Miracle Play in
England ' is another of the long and interesting series of antiquarian
volumes for popular reading issu^ by the same publishing house. The
author briefly sketches the rise and growth of the ' Miracle or ' Mystery'
play in Europe and in England ; and gives an account of the series or
cycle of these curious religious dramas — the forerunners of the modem
secular play — performed at York, Wakefield, Chester, Coventry, and
other towns in the middle ages. But his chief efforts are devoted to
giving a sketch of the manner of production, and the scenery, properties,
and dresses of the old miracle play, as drawn from the minute account
books of the craft and trade guilds and other authentic records of the
period. Mr. Clarke has gone to the best sources for his information,
and the volume, illustrated by quaint cuts, is an excellent compendium
of information on a curious byeway of literature and art." — Thi
Scotsman.

Ecclesiastical Curiosities.

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS.
Demy 8uo., Cloth gilt, 7s. 6d, Numerous lliuatrationa.

Contents: — The Church Door — Sacrificial Foundations —
The Building of the English Cathedrals — Ye Chapell of Oure
Ladye — Some Famous Spires — The Five of Spades and the
Church of Ashton-under-Lyne — Bells and their Messages —
Stories about Bells — Concerning Font-Lore — Watching Cham-
bers in Churches — Church Chests — An Antiquarian Problem :
The Leper Window — Mazes — Churchyard Superstitions —
Curious Announcements in the Church — Big Bones Preserved
in Churches — Samuel Pepys at Church — Index.

"An interesting and engrossing volume.'* — Church Bells.

"It consists of studies by various writers in the history,
customs, and folk-lore of the Church of England. Whilst it
will appeal most strongly to those who are given to antiquarian
and ecclesiological inquiry, it contains much that should prove
of interest to any intelligent reader. The various contributions
give evidence of diligent and discriminating research, and
embody much old-world lore that is curious and instructive." —
Aberdeen Free Press,

"Will instruct and amuse all readers." — The News^ edited
by the Rev. Charles Bullock.

" To every lover of antiquities, to every student of history,
and to every member of the Church, such a book as this is a
boon. The chapters are attractively written in thoroughly
popular form, yet at the same time the reader is acquiring
knowledge which can seldom be obtained without research or
consulting the massive treatises of antiquaries. The publication
of the series of works on Church lore is consequently of much
benefit, and it calls for thanks and appreciation." — Birmingham
Daily Gazette.

" The subject is a fascinating one, and Mr. Andrews has got
together a capital team of contributors. The result is a volume
not of dry archaeology, but of living interest, even though it
deals with bygone times. Altogether a most readable book." —
Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

The Church Treasury of History, Custom,

Folk-Lore, etc.

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Demy Svo,., js. 6d» Numerous Illustrations*

Contents :— Stave-Kirks — Curious Churches of Cornwall — Holy
Wells— Hermits and Hermit Cells— Church Wakes— Fortified Church
Towers — The Knight Templars : their Churches and their Privileges —
English Mediaeval Pilgrimages — Pilgrims' Signs — Human Skin on Church
Doors — Animals of the Church in Wood, Stone, and Bronze — Queries in
Stones — Pictures in Churches — Flowers and the Rites of the Church —
Ghost Layers and Ghost Laying — Church Walks — Westminster Wax-
works — Index. Numerous Illustrations.

"It is a work that will prove interesting to the clergy and churchmen
generally, and to all others who have an antiquarian turn of mind, or like
to be regaled occasionally by reading old-world customs and anecdotes." —
Church Family Newspaper,

" Mr. Andrews has given us some excellent volumes of Church lore, but
none quite so good as this. The subjects are well chosen. They are
treated brightly and with considerable detail, and they are well illustrated.

Mr. Andrews is himself responsible for some of the most

interesting papers, but all his helpers have caught his own spirit, and the
result is a volume full of information well and pleasantly put." — London
Quarterly Review,

"Those who seek information regarding curious and quaint relics or
customs will find much to interest them in this book. The illustrations
are good." — Publishers^ Circular,

"An excellent and entertaining book." — Xewcaatle Daily Leader,

"The book will be welcome to every lover of archaeological lore." —
Liverpool Daily Post,

" The volume is of a most informing and suggestive character, abounding
in facts not easy of access to the ordinary reader, and enhanced with illus-
trations of a high order of merit, and extremely numerous." — Birmingham
Daily Oaaette.

" The contents of the volume are very good." — Leeds Mercury,

" The volume is sure to meet with a cordial reception." — Manchester
Courier.

" A fascinating book.'* — Stockport Advertiser,

" Mr. Andrews has brought together much curious matter." — Manchester
Gfuardian.

" The book is a very readable one, and will receive a hearty welcome." —
Herts. Advertiser.

" Mr. William Andrews has been able to give us a very acceptable and
useful addition to the books which deal with the curiosities of Church lore,
and for this deserves our hearty thanks. The manner in which the book is
printed and illustrated also commands our admiration. " — Norjolk Chronicle,

Literary Byways.

By WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Demy 8vo. , cloth gilt, 78, 6d.

Contents : — Authors at Work— The Earnings of Authors— *• Declined
with Thanks" — Epigrams on Authors — Poetical Graces — Poetry on
Panes — English Folk Rhymes— The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu
Cards— Toasts and Toasting — Curious American Old-Time (cleanings
— The Earliest American Poetess : Anne Bradstreet — A Playful Poet :
Miss Catherine Fanshawe — A Popular Song Writer: Mrs. John
Hunter — A Poet of the Poor : Mary Pyper — The Poet of the Fisher-
Folk : Mrs. Susan K. Phillips— A Poet and Novelist of the People :
Thomas Miller — The Cottage Countess— The Compiler of ** Old
Moore's Almanack " : Henry Andrews — James Nayler, the Mad
Quaker, who claimed to be the Messiah — A Biographical Romance :
Swan's Strange Story — Short Letters — Index.

** An interesting volume." — Ghwch Bells,

*'Turn where you will, there is information and entertainment in
this book." — Birmingham Daily Oaaette,

** The volume is most enjoyable." — Perthshire Advertiser.

** The volume consists of entertaining chapters written in a chatty
style." — Daily Advertiser.

'* A readable volume about authors and books. . . . Like Mr.
Andrews's other works, the book shows wide out-of-the-way reading."
— Glctsgow Herald.

"Dull after-dinner speakers should be compelled to peruse this
volume, and ornament their orations and per-orations with its gems."
— Sundiay Times.

"An entertaining volume. . . . No matter where the book is
opened, the reader will find some amusing and instructive matter."
—Dwndee Advertiser.

" Readable and entertaining. " — Notes and Queries.

" Mr. Andrews delights in the production of the pleasant, gossipy
order of books. He is well qualified, indeed, to do so, for he is pains-
taking in the collection of interesting literary facts, methodical in
setting them forth, and he loves books with genuine ardour." —
Aberdeen Free Press.

" We heartily commend this volume to the attention of readers
who are in any way interested in literature." — Scots Pictorial.

Bygone Punishments.

By William Andrews

Demy 8vo^ cloth gtlty ys, 6d. Numerous Illustrations.

Contents : — Hanging — Hanging in Chains — Hanging,
Drawing, and Quartering — Pressing to Death — Drowning —
Burning to Death — Boiling to Death — Beheading — The
Halifax Gibbet — The Scottish Maiden — Mutilation — Branding
— The Pillory — Punishing Authors and Burning Books — Finger
Pillory— The Jougs— The Stocks— The Drunkard's Cloak-
Whipping and Whipping-Posts — Public Penance — The Repen-
tance Stool — The Ducking Stool — The Brank, or Scold's
Bridle — Riding the Stang — Index

" Mr. Andrews' volume is admirably produced, and contains
a collection of curious illustrations, representative of many of
the punishments he describes, which contribute towards making
it one of the most curious and entertaining books that we have
perused for a long time." — Norfolk Chronicle.

"Those who wish to obtain a good general idea on the
subject of criminal punishment in days long past, will obtain it
in this well-printed and stoutly-bound volume." — Daily Mail,

" Mr. William Andrews, of Hull, is an indefatigable searcher
amongst the byways of ancient English history, and it would be
difficult to name an antiquary who, along his chosen lines, has
made so thoroughly interesting and instructive the mass of
facts a painstaking industry has brought to light. For twenty-
five years he has been delving into the subject of Bygone
Punishments, and is now one of the best authorities upon
obsolete systems of jurisdiction and torture, for torture was, in
various forms, the main characteristic of punishment in the
good old times. The reformation of the person punished was
a far more remote object of retribution than it is with us, and
even with us reform is very much a matter of sentiment.
Punishment was intended to be punishment to the individual in
the first place, and in the second a warning to the rest. It is a
gruesome study, but Mr. Andrews nowhere writes for mere
effect. As an antiquary ought to do, he has made the collection
of facts and their preservation for modern students of history in
a clear, straighforward narrative his main object, and in this
volume he keeps to it consistently. Every page is therefore full
of curious, out-of-the-way facts, with authorities and references
amply quoted." — Yorkshire Post,

A Book About Bells.

By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, b.a.,

Author of ** The Historic Dress of the Clergy," etc.

Crown, Cloth extra, 68,

Contents: — Invention of Bells — Bell Founding and Bell
Founders — Dates and Names of Bells — The Decoration of Bells
— Some Noteworthy Bells — The Loss of Old Bells — Towers
and Campaniles — Bell-Ringing and Bell-Ringers — The Church-
Going Bell — Bells at Christian Festivals and Fasts — The
Epochs of Man's Life Marked by the Bells — The Blessings
and the Cursings of the Bells — Bells as Time- Markers —
Secular Uses of Church and other Bells — Small Bells, Secular
and Sacred — Carillons — Belfry Rhymes and Legends — Index
of Subjects, Index of Places.

Thirteen Full-page Plates.

** A most useful and interesting book. . . . All who are interested
in bells will, we feel confident, read it with pleasure and profit. — Church
Family Newspaper.

" A pleasing, graceful, and scholarly book A handsome

volume which will be prized by the antiquary, and can be perused with
delight and advantage by the general reader." — Notes and Queries.

" * A Book About Bells ' can be heartily commended." — PaU Mall
Gazette.

**An excellent and entertaining book, which we commend to the
attention not only of those who are specially interested in the subject of
bells, but to all lovers of quaint archaeological lore." — Glasgow Herald.

** The book is well printed and artistic in form." — Manchester Courier.

** * A Book About Bells * is destined to be the work of reference on the
subject, and it ought to find a home on the shelves of every library." —
Northern Gazette.

** The task Mr. Tyack has set himself, he has carried out admirably, and
throughout care and patient research are apparent." — Lynn News.

** We heartily recommend our readers to procure this volume." — The
Churchwoman.

** An entertaining work." — Yorkshire Post.

** * A Book About Bells ' will interest almost everyone. Antiquaries will
find in it an immense store of information : but the general reader will
equally feel that it is a book well worth reading from beginning to end. " —
The NewSy Edited by the Rev. Charles Bullock, b.d.

** An excellent vfotk." —Stockton Herald.

** It is a well- written work, and it is sure to be popular." — Hvll
Christian Voice.

** Covers the whole field of bell-lore.'* — Scotsman,

'* Most interesting and finely illustrated." — Birmingham Daily Gazette,

Bygone Church Life in Scotland.

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Demy 8uo,, Cloth gilt, 78. 6d.

Contents : — The Cross in Scotland — Bell Lore — Saints and
Holy Wells — Life in the Pre-Reformation Cathedrals — Public
Worship in Olden Times — Church Music — Discipline in the
Kirk — Curiosities of Church Finance — Witchcraft and the
Kirk — Birth and Baptisms, Customs and Superstitions —
Marriage Laws and Customs — Gretna Green Gossip — Death
and Burial Customs and Superstitions — The Story of a Stool —
The Martyrs' Monument, Edinburgh — Index.

** The book fairly teems with rare gleanings from the fields
of archaeology and folk-lore, and cannot fail to be of extreme
value to the antiquary and of great interest to every intelligent
reader." — Aor/k British Daily Mail,

** A handsome volume.'* — Ardrossan Herald.

" A fascinating book." — Oban Express.

" Capitally put together, finely illustrated, and a well printed
volu me. " — Crieff Journal.

** The volume is certain to receive a welcome from Scotsmen
at home and abroad." — Daily Chronicle.

" Every sentence in the book is either instructive or amusing,
and it should consequently find many appreciative readers. It
contains a vast amount of traditional and historical lore
referring almost to every district of Scotland. There are some
artistic illustrations, especially those of Glasgow Cathedral and
views of ancient portions of that city from the pencil of David
Small." — Dundee Advertiser.

" A pre-eminently readable work." — Dundee Courier.

"A valuable and entertaining volume." — Newcastle Daily
Leader.

**An engrossing book." — Peoples Journal.

" Entertaining and instructive." — Leeds Mercury.

"The book has been carefully prepared, and gives inter-
esting glimpses into the old-time life of our country, and
should, as its editor desires, * win a welcome from Scotsmen at
home and abroad.' " — Aberdeen Free Press.

" A valuable volume." — Kilmarnock Standard.

" A delightful book which we recommend to the notice of
all interested in Church life in Scotland in olden times." —
People^ s Friend.

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